Customer Reviews
This is a "must read" for parents of teens with lower GPA/SAT scores 
2007-12-27
This book has helped me to evaluate colleges for my children and to discover that excellent, albeit lesser-known colleges, exist for bright teens who have different learning styles than predominant teaching styles, and therefore do not necessarily fit the SAT/GPA cookie-cutter mold once they are nearing senior year in high school. This book reports on a study of 40 colleges that teach to various learning differences and produce a high number of successful graduates, in business and number of post-baccalaureate degrees, as compared to the Ivy Leagues. "B" students, and even frustrated high school dropouts are acceptable among these colleges. One particular chapter entitled " Today's Learning Disabled are Tomorrow's Gifted" discusses at length various common indicators of "learning disabled" which are eye opening at least, because they are also normal characteristics of adolescents! I know from experience with my son having been in a Gifted Student program in grammar school, that having had teachers especially trained to instruct to "learning differences" hugely changed his life for the better. I highly recommend this book to any parent/high school student with similar concerns. I sincerely believe you can change your child's life if you read this book.
Interesting read! 
2007-11-26
'Colleges That...' by Loren Pope, was an interesting read. Given the present state of affairs, (a luming cultural divide) I didn't think there were any liberal learning institutions in the U.S. that still embraced real learning. I was under the impression that most of our colleges and universities preferred to push our kids through the system in an assembly-line like fashion. It was a pleasure to find that we still have tolerant institutions in this country that preferred passionate, nurturing professor's with a fire for growing young minds. My only complaint is, I would've liked to have seen more than 40 universities listed. I think a list of maybe 400 schools would've been more palatable. Of course, that would've led to a title change, but what the hell?
Colleges That Can Change Your Life 2007-11-19
I bought this book upon the recommendations of a college counselor. Loren Pope highlights 40 colleges that are deemed to be life changing. This is based on reviews written by students attending that institution and by other factors, such as professor-student interaction, grant percentages, campus size, location, and the college's philosophy. There are thousands of colleges and universities in the U.S. and my son and I were feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the potential choices. This book's goal is to make you think about what kind of learning environment you prefer and respond to. If it is your goal to emerge from the college experience with not only a good degree but with a good college experience and as a well rounded adult, then maybe you should read about colleges that can do just that. Until I read this book, I had never heard of half of the colleges this book mentioned. This book can increase your options of where you may want to go or what you might want to get out of the entire college experience.
A must read for College bound students 2007-11-15
This book will change your attitude toward the big name colleges in favor of some schools you may never have heard of that truly do Change Lives!
Best College Success Books 2007-11-04
This certainly ranks up there. My other choices for 2007, hands down:
1) How To Ace Your Way Through College & Still Have a Life
2) The Official SAT Study Guide
3) Fiske Guide to Colleges
Dr. Vernon M
Cambridge, MA
A valuable tool 2008-07-06
Loved this book. Gave me a new outlook on smaller 4 year liberal art colleges. Highly recommend it to parents and their students who want to find out what type of college they are best suited for. Wish the author would review other liberal art colleges besides those listed. An easy read with great information!
Insight Doesn't Come Easy, Folks 
2008-05-24
There may be a few families who'd be helped by this book, and if so I'd hate to deprive them of it. However, if your child goes to a school with a halfway knowledgeable college counselor, and/or if you have the skills to use the internet, you don't need it and won't find it enlightening. Like a Frommer guidebook, it makes its own recommendations out of date in this era of over-applications. Frankly, the two schools I visited with my junior son didn't much resemble the expectations I'd formed from the book. As previous reviewers have noted, the sampling is loaded heavily toward the northeast and overwhelmingly toward "small liberal arts" colleges, the very sort of schools that over-determined parents are likely to believe would be best for their child in terms of "personal attention" from faculty. A bit of swine-flesh before the pearl gatherers: A little attention from a great faculty member is worth more than a lot of attention from a middling one.
The bottom line is that neither I nor my son found the book stimulating or useful.
Out of date very inaccurate 
2008-04-22
This book is worthless now. The chspter on Southwestern is very misleadinhg and not good advice in picking a school. The prgressive regime of President Shilling has beem replaced by a minister bringing to an end the transformation. With large loss in the endowment in 2000 they are having a hard time doing anything innovative. I DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THR REST BUT IF THIS IS INDICATIVE DO NOT BUY OR USE THIS BOOK.
Good perspective. 2008-02-08
This book offers a useful perspective on the attributes that make a good college, taking attention away from how "exclusive" or hard to get into a college is and placing it instead on how well the college is able to deliver a quality education to students. I am sure there are many more than 40 colleges that fit this category, and much of the match to a student is quite personal anyway, but helping to take some of the frantic nature out of the college hunt is a good contribution.
What Good is a Liberal Arts Education These Days Anyway? 2008-01-26
Unlike most of the other people who have reviewed this book, most of whom merely have offspring at one of the forty colleges listed in Pope's book, I am a 2005 graduate of Earlham College (a college which Pope praises lavishly and excessively and offers highly outdated information about in C.T.C.L.) and now I find myself wondering what my liberal arts degree was (and for that matter is) good for. To be sure, I used Pope's book in making my college selection, and I enjoyed my time in college (and I suspect many/most of the graduates at the other 39 colleges Pope lists enjoyed their times there too). But parents, high school students, and society at large, need to ask themselves whether it is worth it to spend nearly (or more than) $150,000 that these fancy liberal arts colleges cost to send their kids to a place where they can explore their sexuality, drink beer, engage in drinking games, cuddle, go to protests, play frisbee, and read Foucault (and other such drivel), which, of course, is all students at liberal arts schools do these days. I honestly believe one can go to a trade school/community college, interact with a more a diverse segment of the population, earn a useful degree, and come out a better (if much less cynical and slightly less educated) person. Pope's advice is worth a look, but hardly the price.
