Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools You Should Know About Even If You're Not a Straight-A Student

I used to have herd mentality. I thought schools like Harvard, Yale and Stanford are the best. I moved to Northern California to get close to Stanford and Berkeley. Then, I read "Profscam" and "The Hollow Man" by Charles Sykes and I was greatly disappointed in our higher education (for more information also read "Tenured Radicals" and "Illiberal Education" by other authors). The Fisk's and USNews & World Report college guides mention none of the cancerous problems mentioned in Sykes' books.

The colleges metioned in this book "Colleges that change lives" do not have the problems mentioned in Sykes' books.

Now on the positive side, the 40 colleges profiled in this book are gems. Mr. Pope has done a great service for the parents, students, society and especially our country. He has done excellent research. He personally visited these campuses, some several times. Buy this book. Read it and tell your neighbors about...Read more

Loren Pope's "Colleges That Change Lives" is arguably the best, and certainly one of the most influential, college guide books ever published in the U.S. Over the past five years its stature, along with that of its companion book,"Looking Beyond the Ivy League", has grown to the point that it is a "must read" for any college bound junior or senior, parents, and high school guidance counselors. Meticulously researched and beautifully argued, the message in "Colleges That Change Lives" about the continued developmental growth impact of certain types of liberal arts colleges even manages to supercede the excellent profiles of the specific 40 colleges in highlighted in the book. When my oldest son applied to college several years ago, he focused largely on colleges in the book, and we have all been very pleased with his progress at one of them (Denison). In that sense, the book itself has already helped change many lives.

That being...Read more

This book was a key factor in college selection for our seventh child to attend college. Without it, she would probably be at a top-name university which is best suited for graduate students, and not the community of learning of a small liberal arts school. What's more, she was offered merit scholarships (not need-based) from 7 of 8 of the schools on Pope's list to which she applied. (The so-called "top" universities give very few merit-based scholarships). She is in her second year at the College of Wooster, and I believe that she is happier and receiving a better college experience than she would have at Duke, where she was also accepted. The only drawbacks are that very few have heard of these schools, and the nearly-universal "conventional wisdom" fails to recognize the important truths that Loren Pope's books explain. His book "Looking Beyond the Ivies," was also helpful. This book may turn your college search upside down!