Colleges That Change Lives, by Loren Pope

This is a book I heard about after meeting a professor from Clark (he mentioned that Clark University was included in Pope's list of influential colleges). I bought two copies off Amazon (one for myself and one for my boyfriend), and while I do have some new colleges on my list to tour and consider, I found myself rather underwhelmed.

Pope and I at least agree on something - the racket about the Ivy Leagues. These schools are ridiculously overpriced (unfortunately, setting the standard for tuition rates), and often don't have the quality of education everyone thinks they do. Most often, you are taught by grad students (TAs to professors). Ivy Leagues have great appeal for professors - the promise of research resources without having to teach as much as other schools. Pope endeavored to create a list of the best colleges across the country, based on student satisfaction and graduate paths.

Pope's school listings were wide and varied, but one common theme I found was an abundance of statements like this: "We'd rather have the 2.0 or 3.0 student with mediocre SAT scores and a great character, goals, love of learning and experiences than a straight-A, 4.0 student." Which, to be honest, I would too, were I the dean of admissions at a college. However, I felt myself asking throughout the book, "I AM the straight-A, 4.0 student, who also has great goals and loves learning. What do you have to offer me?" The silence was deafening. This isn't to say these schools have nothing to offer for a student like myself, but they didn't mention too much about it.

My only other complaint about some of these schools is that a great percentage of them are religious schools. Which is fine if you're Methodist or Presbyterian, but I would prefer a nonreligious school. One school I found (Wheaton College) was Christian, but nondenominational (on my list). But for the most part, all religious schools were Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic or evangelical fundamentalist. All in all, I give Pope's collection of schools a mediocre rating. It definitely changed the way I thought about college, but didn't go anywhere with that change in thinking. This is definitely a book to take out from the library, but probably not worth the investment to own.

Overall: 4 out of 10.

Details:

Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); Revised edition (July 25, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143037366
ISBN-13: 978-0143037361