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 | Advise families to read

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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

I graduated from one of the 40 schools

I actually graduated 25 years ago from one of those 40 schools Pope reviewed. Looking back, I do agree that although my college was not a "name brand" college, the education I got was like no other. They were formative years and as Pope says, I was "educated" not "trained".

Looking back to those days at college, I would attribute much good of what I am today to attending that Liberal Arts College. My graduate school, post college, was a Big Ten University. The difference? While the Big Ten U. was very "competitive" based, my experience at the Liberal Arts College mentioned in Pope's book was "collaborative".

Yes, I do agree that we are oversold on "brand-name" schools, and Pope's book would be a good guide to exploring your options. If you are thinking of sending your child to, or if you yourself are considering, college, then this book is a "must read" !!

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Advise families to read

As an Independent Educational Consultant, I often give this book to my students that think they want to attend a big university or a name brand school. Often students fall through the cracks at these well-known schools, but the Colleges That Change Lives are nurturing environments that do not let students become just a number. If a student has graduate school aspirations, I especially recommend this book, because these schools have much better track records for preparing and having their students accepted into first choice graduate programs. One of the criteria for being in Colleges That Change Lives is a school cannot be too selective. Even though some of these schools have become quite popular from inclusion in this book, they still accept other than straight A students, because they firmly believe in the learning experience gained from the academic mix of students. This updated version is even more inspiring than the previous. These colleges really do change lives!

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High-value advice for applying to college

I enjoyed the book a lot, especially its focusing on a small number of not-often-discussed colleges. Well-written and thoughtful throughout, the book would be of use to students with not-at-that perfect records, who are looking for a good alternative to some of the very hard to get into "elite" schools. A good "sister book" for students considering colleges, which I also quite liked, was Professors' Guide to Getting Good Grades in College, by Lynn Jacobs and Jeremy Hyman. They tell, from the professors' point-of-view what students already in college can do to get A's. A useful thing, too.

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A Great Perspective

I first bought this book 1.5 years ago when I was researching colleges for my oldest son. It changed the way I looked at selecting colleges from my prior misconceptions that "bigger is better" (like large state schools) and "it has to have a well-known name to be any good." Pope succeeded in convincing me that not only are there invaluable advantages to smaller-size schools but that there is definitely something to be said for "liberal arts & science" institutions that offer a well-rounded curriculum. I was able to relax then because my son had no idea what he wanted to pursue. As a result of reading the book, my son is now attending Cornell College in Iowa where he is getting a wonderful education in small classes with caring instructors and an administration that "took me by the hand," upon his initial arrival as a freshman, & addressed all my fears and concerns about leaving my son with a bunch of strangers 4 hours away. Because the book includes little quantitative information (%'s of in- vs out-of-staters, tuition costs, % of students who graduate/return sophomore year/go to graduate school, etc.) you will need to supplement this book with another, such as the Fiske guide, to give you a basis of comparison across schools. Even if you don't select any of the schools mentioned, it is worth a read if for nothing else other than a refreshing perspective.

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Too much gushing and too little objectivity

I might agree that the "Ivies" are over-rated but this book just gushes on and on about how wonderful these 40 schools are. All of them are perfect and idyllic and everyone who ever went to any of them is a wonderful success and had wonderful and life changing experience at the school.

Somehow, I have to think the real world is a little less rosy than the picture this book paints. If you read one of the school descriptions you've pretty much covered them all as only the names and the adjectives for "wonderful" and "idyllic" change. Basically, it reads as though these 40 schools got together and decided to save money by publishing one sales brochure that includes all of them.

Check this one out from the library, read the first couple of chapters, skim through the descriptions for a few schools and write down the school names from the table of contents. Now get online and see if you can actually learn something about the school aside from the "fact" that it's idyllic and wonderful.

PS. I'm not knocking the schools, just the book. A little less sales and a little more info would have been nice.

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

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