College Books

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

Loren Pope

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Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A Book That Has Become a Classic Guide to Colleges 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book, "Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change The Way You Think About Colleges", has become a well-known and classic guidebook read by many during the college selection process. It is the book that first introduces many people to the concept that small liberal arts colleges will often provide a superior education and are a better choices than big universities for many college-bound high school seniors. It challanges the notion that acceptance into an Ivy League or Ivy League wannabe school should be the ultimate goal for typical bright perspective college students. It points out that the Ivy League schools and most large universities target graduate students rather than undergraduate students. It also points out that professors at those schools are often far more interested in research than paying attention to whether undergraduate students are actually learning the subject or not. Small 4-year liberal arts colleges, however, are different. There, class sizes are smaller, and the professors are far more likely to care about whether their students actually understand what is being taught. The small liberal arts colleges are also much easier for the typical high school graduate to gain entry to. Ivy League schools are beyond reach for the vast majority of high school graduates, and many large public universities have many more applicants than they can accept.

The downside to most private 4-year liberal arts colleges, of course, is cost. The published tuition prices are usually considerably higher than those of most public universities. However, there is some good news about cost. Most private colleges today discount their tuition costs via financial aid and merit scholarships. So, the final cost of a private 4-year liberal arts college might not be too much more than that of a typical public university.

The vast majority of the book is devoted to descriptions of 40 colleges that the writer has selected based upon the criteria he chose to rate the impact of the colleges upon the lives of their students. Those 40 colleges he felt were the best among the colleges he considered. Some of the best information is therefore at the beginning of the book. Starting on about page 35, he begins his descriptons of the 40 colleges. I could not help wondering as I read through the college descriptions whether other writers would have used different criteria and therefore included some different colleges.

It should also be pointed out that one must be careful in wholely relying upon this book to make their college selection. One should take note that the writer included Antioch College among the 40 colleges. Antioch College, of course, is now closed. That fact suggests that parents need to consider more than just whether a college has historically been innovative or life-changing when considering whether they want to spend their money to send their children to it. They might also want to take a look at a college's financial picture, its enrollment statistics, and in just what manner the college has been changing lives.

Overall, "Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change The Way You Think About Colleges" should be a must-read book for parents and perspective college students. It will make one think about whether the best undergraduate college option is always a large public university.

Editorial Review:

Now fully revised—the perennially popular guide to choosing the right college

Prospective college students and their parents have been relying on Loren Pope’s expertise since 1995, when he published the first edition of this indispensable guide. This new edition profiles 41 colleges—all of which outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing performers, not only among A students but also among those who get Bs and Cs. Contents include:

• Evaluations of each school’s program and “personality”
• Candid assessments by students, professors, and deans
• Information on the progress of graduates

This new edition not only revisits schools listed in previous volumes to give readers a comprehensive assessment, it also addresses such issues as homeschooling, learning disabilities, and single-sex education.

College Basketball Prospectus 2008-2009: The Essential Guide to the Men's College Basketball Season (College Basketball Prospectus: The Essential Guide to the)

Ken Pomeroy, John Gasaway

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Editorial Review:

In the winning tradition of the New York Times bestselling Baseball Prospectus, the ultimate guide to college basketball.

From the brand that brought sports fans the New York Times bestselling Baseball Prospectus comes an all-new, one-of-akind, authoritative guide to college basketball. Utilizing the same unique prediction model, College Basketball Prospectus 2008-2009 applies objective knowledge, original hardhitting statistical analysis, and provocative writing to one of America’s most popular sports.

Divided into three sections, the prospectus includes essays on various aspects of the college game and the past season, previews of all thirty-one Division-I conferences, and a statistical abstract with the same cutting-edge mathematical analysis that has yielded a winning record of accurate predictions for the Baseball and Pro Football Prospectus series. For the 60 million Americans who are diehard college basketball fans, College Basketball Prospectus 2008-2009 is a slam dunk.

How To Get Into the Top MBA Programs, 4th Edition (How to Get Into the Top Mba Programs)

J.D., Richard Montauk

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 118 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

huge book, worthwhile and seems complete 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is a huge book, worthwhile and seems complete. I also have the Your MBA Game Plan: Proven Strategies for Getting into the Top Business Schools, and this book is ten times the size. I have yet to read the whole thing and probably will never; however it is easy to find the data I need for my search. I also like the discussions about why and where to go, not just the how like in other books.

This book helped me get into a top school! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I used the previous edition of the book in 2006 (green cover) and it helped me get into a top 5 business school. In fact I got into both the top 5 schools that I had applied to.

My advice to applicants is to pay special attention to essays and recommendation letters. If the writers are too busy, write one up for them (call it a template) and let them edit it. That way you can get them to say what you want them to say more or less.

Spend a LOT of time on the essays, they can make or break you more than the GMAT. Read them over and over again, read them aloud, have someone read them to you and have them reviewed by someone who got into the school you want to get into. The sample essays in the book were great to know what kind of information the admissions committee would look for. I took as much as 30 days of every day work to get my essays in the form that I was happy with.

Montauk's book guides you through this process and that was the only book I used.

Editorial Review:

Now updated and revised.

Now with new and expanded information on Executive MBA programs, the most up-to-date school rankings, new interviews with admissions officers, and more detailed advice for younger applicants, Montauk offers an up-close and candid view of what leading MBA programs look for in an applicant.

What the Best College Teachers Do

Ken Bain

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Total reviews: 29 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

What makes a great teacher great? Who are the professors students remember long after graduation? This book, the conclusion of a fifteen-year study of nearly one hundred college teachers in a wide variety of fields and universities, offers valuable answers for all educators.

The short answer is--it's not what teachers do, it's what they understand. Lesson plans and lecture notes matter less than the special way teachers comprehend the subject and value human learning. Whether historians or physicists, in El Paso or St. Paul, the best teachers know their subjects inside and out--but they also know how to engage and challenge students and to provoke impassioned responses. Most of all, they believe two things fervently: that teaching matters and that students can learn.

In stories both humorous and touching, Bain describes examples of ingenuity and compassion, of students' discoveries of new ideas and the depth of their own potential. What the Best College Teachers Do is a treasure trove of insight and inspiration for first-year teachers and seasoned educators.

(20040315)

U.S. News Ultimate College Guide 2009, 6E (Us News Ultimate College Guide)

Staff of U.S.News & World Report

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Editorial Review:

Featuring complete data on more than 1,400 colleges and universities, U.S. News Ultimate College Guide 2009 is the best source for the information students and parents need most. Equally important, it also includes the essential step-by-step guide to the often stressful process of choosing a college, getting in, and finding the money, plus exclusive lists and indices to help compare the schools.

These lists and customized indices give students and parents what they need to make the best decisions, including:

• The hardest and easiest schools to get into
• Schools that award the most need-based aid
• The best values: great deals at great schools

Step-by-step advice from the nation's leading education writers includes:

• How to choose the right school for you
• What colleges look for in students
• How to find the money to pay for college

God And Man At Yale: 50Th Anniversary Edition

Jr., William F. Buckley

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

God Not a Universal Perception 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 51 people found this review helpful.

With all due respect to Mr. Buckley's respect for his religion, Catholicism, the revelation to me is that scholarly steeples at Yale apparently affect persons differently. Some see them as hallowed, others as mere obstacles to hurdle in pursuit of what are often portrayed as lofty ideals within the context of Godly acceptance. For most people those ideals do not easily include pedophilia, but when I once read a "scholarly" paper from the 1960's that defended the practice (though typically moreso in an effort to reconicile the dilemma), it became clear to me that God is not a universal perception at Yale, nor is humankind. Trying to appreciate the scholarship and insightful method of choosing so brave a topic during that period, I still found it hard to accept that anyone - well educated - could justify or minimize the harm done to an innocent. Today, in 2005 my opinions are unchanged, and in fact, perhaps are far more biased for learning of the extent to which Catholicism allowed such acts to become what could only be called a universal norm. The Biblical passage that comes to mind is one well known by most Christian, and the shorted in the Bible, it is said. "Jesus wept." This is the logic most expect from the quality of Yale regardless of how well written or scholarly it is done if Christianity is the objective.

Editorial Review:

In 1951, a twenty-five-year old Yale graduate published his first book, which exposed the extraordinarily irresponsible educational attitude that prevailed at his alma mater. This book rocked the academic world and catapulted its young author, William F. Buckley Jr., into the public spotlight.

Cracking the CBEST, 2nd Edition (College Test Prep)

Rick Sliter

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Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent source of material!!! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

"Cracking the CBEST" book is an excellent source of material. It explains in great detail how to solve the problems of reading, mathematics, and writing. Though the methods of cracking the problems are simple, it gave me confidence that under stress of test taking I can succeed because the solutions do not bombard you with over explanations. Everything is simply laid out and I felt that I didn't have to guess for the answers because the solutions teaches you how to approach each problem. I felt confident taking the two tests at the end of the book and even scored better on the second test! For someone who suffers from test anxiety, I feel confident taking the CBEST test next week because now I have the tools and the positive attitude to follow through. And that's no easy task for me! I say buy this book because you will not regret it.

Editorial Review:

If It's on the CBEST, It's in This Book
We don't try to teach you everything there is to know about mathematics, reading, and writing –only the techniques you'll need to score higher on the CBEST. There's a big difference. In Cracking the CBEST, we'll teach you how to think like the test writers and

·Eliminate answer choices that look right but are planted to fool you
·Prepare for the new challenges of the revised CBEST
·Raise your score by mastering the critical analysis and evaluation area of the reading section
·Ace the math section by knowing what to expect

This book includes 2 full-length practice CBEST exams. All of our practice questions are just like the ones you’ll see on the actual CBEST, and we fully explain every solution.

Painless Writing (Barron's Painless Series)

Jeffrey Strausser

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Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Titles in Barron's Painless Series are textbook supplements designed especially for classroom use by middle-school and high school students. The approach of each title is an appeal to students who think that the subject is boring, or too difficult, or both. The authors, all experienced educators, take a light approach, showing kids what is most interesting about each subject, and how seemingly difficult problems can be transformed into fun quizzes, brain-ticklers, and challenging puzzles with rational solutions. Here is practical advice that transforms essay writing into a satisfying experience for middle school and senior high school students. The author offers tips on enlivening writing with vivid images, smoothing out sentences, silencing the dull passive voice, and adding rhythm to writing. He also shows how to create a template that students can use when writing research papers for all subjects. In addition, students will find web site reference s cited throughout the text, which they can access. Brain ticklers (short quizzes) appear throughout the book with an answer key at the back.

In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement

Paula J. Giddings

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Total reviews: 56 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This history of the largest block women's organization in the United States is not only the story of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority (DST), but also tells of the increasing involvement of black women in the political, social, and economic affairs of America. Founded at a time when liberal arts education was widely seen as either futile, dangerous, or impractical for blacks, especially women, DST is, in Giddings's words, a "compelling reflection of block women's aspirations for themselves and for society."

Giddings notes that unlike other organizations with racial goals, Delta Sigma Theta was created to change and benefit individuals rather than society. As a sorority, it was formed to bring women together as sisters, but at the some time to address the divisive, often class-related issues confronting black women in our society. There is, in Giddings's eyes, a tension between these goals that makes Delta Sigma Theta a fascinating microcosm of the struggles of black women and their organizations.

DST members have included Mary McLeod Bethune, Mary Church Terrell, Margaret Murray Washington, Shirley Chisholm, Barbara Jordan, and, on the cultural side, Leontyne Price, Lena Horne, Ruby Dee, Judith Jamison, and Roberta Flack. In Search of Sisterhood is full of compelling, fascinating anecdotes told by the Deltas themselves, and illustrated with rare early photographs of the Delta women.

A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges

Michele A. Hernandez

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Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Plenty of college admission guides promise to help students crack the Ivy League, but few of these have detailed knowledge to back up their advice. Michele Hernandez, on the other hand, is the ultimate insider. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, she also worked as Dartmouth's assistant director of admissions for four years. In A Is for Admissions, Hernandez describes the step-by-step process Ivy League schools use to evaluate an application. Along the way she settles some ancient debates, including the comparative importance of SATs versus high-school grades, public versus private high schools, and extracurricular activities versus part-time employment. She evaluates every possible factor affecting chances for admission, including special categories of students such as recruited athletes, minority applicants, and legacies. Most dramatically, Hernandez reveals the precise mathematical formula used by admissions officers to rank applicants. Using her guidelines, readers can calculate their own AI (Academic Index) and--should their scores come up short--learn ways to compensate in other areas.

Refreshingly, Hernandez helps would-be Ivy Leaguers keep their goals in perspective. She strongly advises against "grade grubbing" or "working for the grade." If you think attending a top college is the key to success, Hernandez cautions that the Ivies may not be for you. "If your goal is to make money, but you don't enjoy studying or reading, don't waste your time by trying to get into an Ivy League or highly selective college.... The beauty of an Ivy League/highly selective education lies in the intellectual atmosphere.... It does not lie in the prestige of having a diploma from Princeton or Dartmouth on your wall." Levelheaded and clearly written, A Is for Admission is the perfect guide for the student (or parent) who has his eyes set on the stars.