Rating: 
Summary: Much better than Fisk's or USNews College Guides
Review: 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 it. Buy a copy for your children's high school counselors. In this 2nd edition 3 colleges have been removed: Bard, Franklin & Marshall and Grinnell. Three are added: Ursinus, Agnes Scott and Wabash. Also added are 2 sections: one section for Learning Disabled and another for Homeschooler. We all love our children and want to do our best for them. It is important to find out what their natural gifts and talents are. When they know what they are naturally gifted in they can make intelligent choice about what kind of college profiled in this book they should attend. Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation provides excellent methods in finding out what a person's natural talents are. All in all, this book deserves 20 stars!!! The best collge guide there is. And never let a small volume fool you. It is packed with gems.
Rating:
Summary: Much better than Fisk's or USNews College Guides
Review: 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 it. Buy a copy for your children's high school counselors. In this 2nd edition 3 colleges have been removed: Bard, Franklin & Marshall and Grinnell. Three are added: Ursinus, Agnes Scott and Wabash. Also added are 2 sections: one section for Learning Disabled and another for Homeschooler. We all love our children and want to do our best for them. It is important to find out what their natural gifts and talents are. When they know what they are naturally gifted in they can make intelligent choice about what kind of college profiled in this book they should attend. Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation provides excellent methods in finding out what a person's natural talents are. All in all, this book deserves 20 stars!!! The best collge guide there is. And never let a small volume fool you. It is packed with gems.
Rating: 
Summary: much PR, little reality
Review: I was disappointed in this book. The college reviews read like releases from the colleges' PR offices. Each review consists of a few unctuous anecdotes, plus quotes from administrators (who, naturally, plug their schools as the finest in the country) and a few students, each of whom is totally thrilled with the place. All forty schools are painted rosily; nothing the slightest bit negative is mentioned. This summer we visited one of Pope's glowingly described colleges (which shall go unnamed -- but suffice it to say, its new library was painted as the most heavenly place imaginable). Maybe the day we picked to visit wasn't one of the school's better days (our tour guide must have represented the school's lowest caliber of students); but a bad day can't be held responsible for the depressing and meager dorm rooms, classrooms, cafeteria and student center. The fantastically described library turned out to be a mediocre let-down, after Pope's build-up. Of course there's more to a college than its physical plant; but physical plant does matter, and this college seemed an awfully dismal place to spend four years.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent resource for a personalized education
Review: I'd have given this one 5 stars but dropped one star in my ratings because I don't feel that it can be used as the SOLE guide to choosing a college. Instead, it is best used along with the more well-known college guides. What this one offers that those DON'T is a look at some schools which help students achieve their personal goals and which accept students who aren't necessarily academic whizzes. Ideally, college should help an individual student rise to his or her greatest potential and be a good fit for that student. A good college should not overwhelm, intimidate or alienate a student. In an effort to offer alternatives for students who don't feel like an Ivy League or larger institution fits their needs, this book suggest plenty of choices for high schoolers who may still be figuring out what they want and need in a college and who might be overwhelmed in larger, less personal institutions.
Rating: 
Summary: Eh....Take it with a grain of salt
Review: I'll admit it: I'm personally biased against this book because when it came time for me to start thinking about college, this was pretty much the only book my parents would allow me to consult. I was pressured to apply to schools that I didn't even want to go to just for the fact that they would "change" my life; if a college wasn't in the book, or it didn't fit the general criteria of what Pope considered a "good" school to be, I was told not to even bother to apply. I ended up having to choose "the lesser of three evils" amongst the three colleges I was accepted to.
I can certainly see how these schools would appeal to some students, but take a look at other schools, even the large state universities Pope deplores. Personally, I'm about to transfer to one such large university, and I couldn't be happier.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I'm a high school senior and despite the title I am a straight-A student. This book helped me realize the difference in education from small liberal arts schools and the ivies. I believe these colleges will help prepare me more for life than other well known schools and that everyone looking for a college should check these schools out.
Rating:
Summary: Go outside the box
Review: If you think of the usual colleges and ask "is that all?", then this book is for you. Pope's book is very helpful for those who wish to expand their college lists. There's such a ridiculous feeding frenzy in the admissions world and it's mostly focused on about 50 colleges--in a country of 3000 colleges. But don't mistake this for a college admissions how-to book. I suggest Allen's "Trade Secrets" for tips and strategies. And while I'm not a big fan of Princeton Review's "Best Colleges," most high school students love it. So Princeton Review's book seems ot be the best general college guide. After reading through those two books, turn to Pope's book for a tour of the unexpected and unheralded.
Rating:
Summary: On second thoughts
Review: It has been 18 months since I wrote the last review. "The Colleges that Change Lives" is mainly for the B and C students. What do you do if you have a child that is an A student? This book does not address this problem. P>There is a lack in this book, which is also common to 99% of college guide books. It does not tell you the moral situations on the campuses. Some schools may be very loose with drugs and sexuality. Some schools may have a rebellious culture. Some schools may have serious drinking and partying problems. Concerned parents may need to dig in many places to find such information.
Rating:
Summary: This is the book on colleges we have been waiting for!
Review: Loren Pope has 46 years of experience in writing about colleges. One of the colleges he writes about in this book, The College of Wooster, happens to be my alma mater. When the book came out, Wooster sent a reprint of the relevant chapter to alumni. The description was right on target. I never quite realized what a jewel of a college I had attended. I had thought that my very positive college experience had been luck or perhaps a product of the times. Pope has convinced me that it was neither. The good news is that the sense of community and academic purpose I experienced at Wooster exists at 39 other schools around the country and that, through this book, these schools are about to be discovered by many more students. It should be required reading for students interested in college and their parents.
Rating:
Summary: Great source of info on smaller colleges, BUT...
Review: Loren Pope has been involved in college advising for many years. He is very well informed and a careful researcher, as any reader will see in this book. This guide is the first to really do justice to the many outstanding liberal arts colleges we have in the Midwest. Pope does, however, have some very firm opinions on the purpose and nature of college education. According to Pope, a college is a small community of scholars dedicated to teaching undergraduates -- the liberal arts college ideal. Any other type of higher education -- universities, more vocationally oriented institutions -- gets bashed in this book. Pope also places some limits on the range of colleges he is willing to cover -- no single-sex schools for instance. I often recommend this book to students and parents at the private school where I teach, but always with caveats. It is best used in conjunction with more comprehsive gudies -- Fiske or Insider's, for instance.
| 
