Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges

Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges | Loren Pope | Learning About Colleges

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Colleges That Chan...

	Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges Loren Pope Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 39 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This book changed my son's life.

What a refreshing change from all those other college guides! This book neither gushes over the ultra-Ivies, nor chuckles at the party-hearty habits of the big universities; instead, it offers hope to the average student, the learning disabled, and the late-blooming adolescent. It focuses on pointing readers in the direction of colleges that make a difference in the lives of young men and women, and in the community at large. A chapter in the beginning, entitled "Today's Learning Disabled Will Be Tomorrow's Gifted", while perhaps slightly over-optimistic, nevertheless opened my eyes to so many possibilities for my son. If you are a hopeful idealist, looking to do something that matters in your life, or looking to guide your underacheiving or learning challenged child, and you're looking for a college that cares about its students and truly wants to admit the students who apply, do as I did and buy or borrow this book today.

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Learning About Colleges

The title of this book is apt--it's not just that I learned about colleges I might not otherwise have heard or or might not otherwise have encouraged my child to consider. The book changed the way I think about colleges. It gave me some very different metrics and criteria than the ones I already had--and I'm in higher education and thought I already knew everything there was to know about this topic. Well worth reading.

The Virtue of Mediocrity

I love colleges and universities. I should. I've been in and out of them for the last twenty years. For me, our colleges and universities are the country's greatest asset. Besides that, this incredible diversity of institutions, sprinkled across every physical, geographical, architectural and intellectual setting one can imagine, is a nearly endless repository of human knowledge, discovery and American history. If you love colleges like I do, read this book just for the fun of it. It's very well written, but I'm not really sure it's effective as a college guide.

Most publications in this genre are of the "best colleges" variety. This one is not. Consider the following statements:

Harvard just isn't the right fit for everyone. Students should consider the colleges which can best provide them with the kind of services and environment they need to thrive.

You can receive as good an education at Rhodes College as at Princeton. The Ivy League really isn't as good as its reputation suggests.

You should go to liberal arts college to further explore and develop your interests, and think about your plans for graduate school.

The elite universities are hard to get into, but easy to graduate from. It's the getting in that's tough.

Why would I go directly to Georgetown University, which is so expensive, when I can spend two years at a liberal arts college and transfer to Georgetown later? I save money that way.

Teaching is more important than research.

The value added in college is more important than the brand name on the degree certificate.

The most important function of a college or university is to nurture and sustain democracy.

If you generally agree with any or all of these concepts, you'll like this book. If you believe these ideas to be mostly revisionist anti-Ivy League idealism, or patronizing statements intended to disguise the elitism of the speaker, you'll think this book is nothing more than fire kindling. Much of what Pope writes here reminds me of any number of articles appearing from time to time in The Chronicle of Higher Education with that patronizing "Not everyone needs to go to a name brand college" tone. Right, because if not everyone needs to go to a name brand college, the elite status of those who DO go to a name brand college is maintained (sarcasm intended).

I tend to not buy the "virtues of the middle" argument because I find it dismissive of students' rationality and their desire to excel. I can understand why, literally, every high school graduate in the country wants to go to Harvard; because Harvard matters and students are rational. I believe prospective students learn more, and maximize their chances to excel by stretching beyond their perceived limits. A student will never know if she can attend Duke unless she applies. I'd hate for her to give up that opportunity because a gate-keeping author like Pope thinks she's a better "fit" at Guilford.

Rather than candy coating the truth, as this book does, I think most prospective students want to know the facts: Harvard is the best because it has the best faculty, the most money, attracts the smartest, most intellectually curious students, offers the best post-graduate opportunities and is located in lovely Cambridge. But many students are just going to have to settle for Birmingham-Southern because, well, they will never get into Harvard. College admission is competitive, and that makes colleges better, not worse.

I think a better strategy for a book like this would be to identify the "hidden gems", to cite the much overused phrase. Perhaps Loren can tell us which colleges and universities are the sleepers. An advisor told me long ago that the best college for me is the one that will admit me now, but would reject me in a decade. The students who applied (and were admitted) about twenty years ago to Rice University, Washington University, Case Western Reserve University, and others like these are enjoying the benefits now, as those institutions become more distinguished.

And here's another hint: If you don't think a nice framed diploma from Stanford or Rice will change your life, think again.

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Hard to read.

I've tried, but I just can't get into this book. Most of the institutions are in the east and we live in the southwest! Anyway, I found this book to be dull and hard to read.

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, page 6, 7, 8

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