Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges,   ISBN:9780143037361

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Just starting out our college search for our daughter (HS junior) and I was having a hard time getting focused--it's easy to get overwhelmed with available information. This book was just what I was looking for. We're planning a visit to Ursinus College in a couple of weeks. Great profiles of schools that DON'T include the typical SAT/GPA/tuition figures that you can find anywhere. Really gets to the heart of each school.

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Oh how I wish this book had been available and known to me when I was deciding where to go to college!

When I chose where to go to college, I bought the hype about famous professors and outstanding research facilities. I went to a BIG university. My classes the first two years were very large in size. One had 450 students. I only got to know my roommates and a few of the people that lived on my hall in my dorm. When classes ended, everyone ran off in different directions across the big campus to get to their next class on time. I met few of my classmates. This university had world-famous professors and fantastic research facilities. I met none of my professors. All of my class interaction was with graduate assistants, not professors. As an undergraduate, not one of the fantastic research facilities or research projects was relevant to me.

Now I am helping my son and daughter look for colleges. "Colleges that Change Lives" has helped my kids in many ways: It got them more excited about college. It gave them information that enabled them to develop their own unique college evaluation criteria. In visiting some of the colleges Loren Pope wrote about, we recognized that the science laboratories we saw were as well equipped and more accessible than those at the big universities, and that students had far greater opportunities to participate in sports and theatrical productions than at larger schools. If you or your friends have children or grandchildren who are in high school, this book is the best investment you can make in their education.

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First of all, most of this information can be found on the Colleges That Change Lives website for free and in a more concise manner. More information can also be found on various other free websites.

But with that said, I think that the idea of this book is kind of pointless. People might prefer different environments, but generally like that saying goes, college is what you make of it. Unless you're unable to live out on your own or you have financial difficulties, generally, I think that people can generally succeed at whatever college they want to if they want to, and to most employers, where you got your undergraduate degree doesn't matter.

Despite the supposedly high amount of financial generosity and support, many students of these colleges don't graduate at all, even after six years. For example, Rhodes College and Hampshire College graduates less than three quarters of its students, renowned Hendrix graduates only 2/3s. St. John's college in New Mexico has a graduation rate of more than 1/3 less than equally-selective UC Berkeley, a large state school where everyone is apparently treated just as a number. Reed College has the unfortunate award of having the second-lowest graduation rate of a "Most Competitive" college. While graduation rates are not everything, the first point of college is to get a degree, and it makes a lasting impact on your life if you do fail or drop out of colelge.

I got these numbers from IPEDS, which does have some flaws, including the fact that it doesn't track transfer students. Similarly-sized tiny Amherst, Swarthmore, and Williams Colleges are at the very top of the graduation rates. And in an age where the "fit" of a college is considered a very important thing, wouldn't having to transfer show the lack of it?

One last note is that while I do not care much for diversity, these colleges are not necessarily where you want to go if you want to meet people of different backgrounds. While claiming to be great supporters of diversity, some of these schools are the least diverse in America. All of the colleges here except for maybe two or three are over 75-80% white while their proportion in the rest of America is only 66% and shrinking. Also, many of the colleges here are quite expensive, and despite the financial aid, they mostly attract students from the upper levels of income. While wanting diversity if a personal choice and I'm sure that there are many opportunities to find it outside of the classroom, this is something that should be kept in mind.

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I have not finished the book but it promises to give some very informative information and was recommended to me by a college professor in NC. It just took a very long time to get to me.

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I wish I'd read this book before I went to college. Although I was very happy with the college I attended, reading this book might have changed my life. At the time I wasn't really thinking about college that way. I knew my life was going to change. For one thing I'd be 800 miles away from my parents. But being a very young 18 year old, I really didn't understand the big picture. I think this book opens up a whole different way to look at the college experience and to decide what you want from that experience. College is so much more than a degree, and this book can start you thinking about what more you want.