Unlock Your College Potential: 40 Schools That Will Transform Your View of Higher Education with Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives

Jm: This was a good book to read if you know going in that it is an advocacy piece for very small schools (think 1000 students). If you're looking for an objective analysis, this isn't your book. Still, it provides some interesting points about small schools and some decent information on various small schools throughout the country. I would have welcomed a comparison and/or analysis of schools with a few more students - say, up to 5,000. But they might be outside of this author's expertise. The book is worth reading (and short), but you'll want to read others as well.

United States on Jan 25, 2023

common woman: If you go to college, the one you choose will be very important to your life. Reading this, and by reading it, considering what you want to be the foundation of your career and the life you will choose as an adult, will be valuable even if you don't choose one of these colleges. The rankings you see annually in magazines of major univeristies are based on how many people they reject and how much they cost - as positive things in the rankings!! This goes miles deeper - how will you relate to your professors, will anyone encourage your consideration of your career? A college has a personality. Don't waste thousands of dollars and years of your life on one based on a blind ranking or which one was closest.

United States on Oct 07, 2022

wendy05: Very opinionated and narrow minded.

Mexico on Feb 26, 2020

sergey: Comprehensive review of the less known but very good US colleges.
Great for future students and parents.
Shows how diverse the educational field in the US is.

Netherlands on Jan 02, 2017

Elle W: This book was highly recommended to parents by the director of college counseling at my kids' private boarding school where they take the college search VERY seriously! She encouraged students and parents to look at the colleges in this book as they may not be "big name" but stressed that a good fit and what the child takes away from their college experience are more important. It wasn't meant as a put down of the more prestigious schools but rather that there are a lot of great schools that are often overlooked because they lack the big name (and price tag!). Colleges That Change Lives is broken into different regions of the country, which really helped us since my children didn't want to go far away. At first I was disappointed that some regions don't have many colleges listed but I changed my mind on that since it wasn't the purpose of the book; the focus was intended to be the United States as a whole. I like that there are lots of quotes from students and that the book zeroes in on what is unique about each college. I really got a sense of what is special about each of these schools and several ended up on my children's lists that wouldn't have if we hadn't...

United States on Jul 21, 2016

Henry W: 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...

United States on Nov 14, 2008