Austin College is a private liberal arts college affiliated by covenant relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Sherman, Texas, about 60 miles (about 100 km) north of Dallas. Austin College was profiled in all three editions of renowned education writer and editor Loren Pope's book Colleges That Change Lives, which distinguishes schools having two essential elements: "A familial sense of communal enterprise that gets students heavily involved in cooperative rather than competitive learning, and a faculty of scholars devoted to helping young people develop their powers, mentors who often become their valued friends."