The Bottom Line
Pros
- Challenges the myths surrounding elite schools
- Persuasively argues that great educations exist outside the Ivy League
- Provides different metrics for measuring schools than most guidebooks
- Valuable chapter on students with learning disabilities
Cons
- Covers only 40 schools
- Anti-Ivy League bias is obvious
- Fails to address the short-comings of the 40 schools
Description
- Profiles of 40 schools
- 320 pages
- Lists for $15 but often discounted
- Updated in 2006
Guide Review - Loren Pope's Colleges that Change Lives
So many of the college guidebooks out there focus on so-called "top" schools -- those schools with the prestigious names and remarkably high admissions standards. Loren Pope's Colleges That Change Lives looks at education in terms of a school's value to the student, not in terms of SAT scores, endowments, and acceptance rates.The result is a book that helps readers rethink what it is that they are investing in when making decisions about college. Is it an education or a school's name? For Pope, the education comes first.
For anyone despairing about not having the scores to get into the Ivy League, this book is essential reading. For anyone who is applying to elite universities, this book is worth a read to help you make an informed decision about the path of your education.
The book does have its biases, and some of the trash talk about Harvard and other elite schools is not fully justified. Nevertheless, Pope does add an important counter-argument to the myths surrounding the likes of Harvard and Stanford, and he is certainly correct when he argues that there are some great but lesser-known schools in the United States.
