Loren Pope

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Loren Pope (born 1910) is an American writer and independent college placement counsellor.

In 1965, Pope, a former newspaperman and education editor of the New York Times, founded the College Placement Bureau, one of the first independent college placement counselling services in the United States. He is a graduate of DePauw University.

His first book, The Right College: How to Get In, Stay In, Get Back In (Macmillan, 1970), nationally syndicated article series "Twenty Myths That Can Jinx Your College Choice," published in The Washington Post Magazine and the Reader's Digest. A second book, Looking Beyond the Ivy League: Finding the College That’s Right for You (Penguin, 1995), was also a best seller.

His most recent and best-selling work, Colleges That Change Lives (Penguin, 2000), profiles his top 40 choices—schools that "he claims will do as much as, and perhaps even more than, any name-brand schools to fully educate students and to give them rich, full lives". His books prove extremely helpful in chosing different colleges that are right for the student. He focuses mainly on private liberal arts colleges, usually with about 1500 students.

Pope is also known for commissioning the Pope-Leighey House in 1939, designed and constructed originally in Falls Church, Virginia by Frank Lloyd Wright. Pope, who was working as a $50 a week copy writer at a Washington newspaper, convinced Wright to build the small house (less than 1,200 square feet) by writing him a famously flattering letter.

In the letter Pope wrote There are certain things a man wants during life, and, of life. Material things and things of the spirit. The writer has one fervent wish that includes both. It is for a house created by you. Will you create a house for us? Will you? The architect's reply was brief: Dear Loren Pope: Of course I am ready to give you a house.