"Best Colleges" reliability

College Search & Selection
21

<p>Choosing the Right College.</p>

<p>What kind of ignoramus, looking at that title, would not understand that there is an in your face perspective being offered? [but be aware, many here believe that you are an ignoramus in desperate need of their intellectual and psychic nursing]
If you don’t get the title than it is highly unlikely that you will have the where with all to get into any of the colleges this singular and fascinating book surveys […but of course you do].</p>

<p>No matter what your political or educational philosophy amounts to, you will come away with a deeper understanding of the colleges you are interested in through the CTRC profiles, if for no other reason than that it has an honest perspective that the book is honest about.</p>

<p>The book is quite engaging. I highly recommend it.</p>

22

<p>
[quote]
No matter what your political or educational philosophy amounts to, you will come away with a deeper understanding of the colleges you are interested in through the CTRC profiles, if for no other reason than that it has an honest perspective that the book is honest about.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If ISI is so honest, why do they print untruths?</p>

<p>For example, in their making their standard diatribe against the lack of traditional survey courses, they state that the Shakespeare survey course does not count towards the distribution requirements at Swarthmore and then continue, "Not “Beowulf to Milton.” Not even
“American Poetry.” These courses are
reserved for majors and the suspiciously
curious."</p>

<p>But, even the most cursory look at the course catalog shows that not only do these courses count towards distribution requirements, they are on the list of English department core courses and are included in the pre-reqs for freshmen or sophmores wishing to take upper level English courses. Here is the full list of English department core courses:</p>

<hr>

<p>CORE COURSES</p>

<p>ENGL 010. Core Course: Survey I: Beowulf to Milton*
ENGL 011. Core Course: Survey II: Neo-Classical to Post-Colonial
ENGL 019. Core Course: Chaucer and Shakespeare
ENGL 022. Core Course: Literature of the English Renaissance*
ENGL 026. Core Course: English Drama Before 1642*
ENGL 031. Core Course: Topics in the “New” 18th Century*
ENGL 045. Core Course: Modern British Poetry
ENGL 052B. Core Course: U.S. Fiction, 1945 to the Present
ENGL 053. Core Course: Modern American Poetry
ENGL 054. Core Course: Faulkner, Morrison, and the Representation of Race
ENGL 066. Core Course: American Literature Survey I*
ENGL 071B. Core Course: The Lyric Poem in English***
ENGL 071D. Core Course: The Short Story in the United States
ENGL 076. Core Course: The World, the Text, and the Critic
ENGL 080. Core Course: Critical and Cultural Theory </p>

<hr>

<p>ISI continues its "honesty" by complaining that Swarthmore's English courses "are organized thematically rather than chronologically, as if designed to mirror
the post-structuralist rejection of literary history in favor of a kaleidoscope of splintered, often politicized perspectives."</p>

<p>Yet, the published course catalog shows that even the course numbering system is grouped chronologically (where appropriate), and I quote:</p>

<hr>

<p>The English Department courses are grouped together by historical period, genre, or course level as follows:</p>

<p>001A,B,C: Special courses that do not count toward the major [note: these are basic college writing courses for incoming freshmen and advanced writing courses for upperclass students planning to work in the writing "tutors" program.</p>

<p>009A,B,C, etc.: FirstYearSeminars [note: limited to 12 students each, heavily focused on writing, revision, and rewriting]</p>

<p>010–096: Advanced courses including core courses:
010, 011: Survey Courses in British Literature
014–019: Medieval
020–029: Renaissance and 17th Century
030–039: Restoration, 18th Century, and Romantic
040–049: Victorian to Modern
050–069: American (including African American, Asian American, and Native American)
070A,B,C, etc.: Creative Writing and Journalism Workshops
071A,B,C, etc.: Genre Studies
072–079: Comparative Literature/Literature in Translation
080–096: Critical Theory, Film, and Media Studies
097–099: Independent Study and Culminating Exercises </p>

<p>Over 100: Honors Seminars, Theses, etc. (open to juniors and seniors with approval of the department chair only) </p>

<hr>

<p>Not only are there chronological groupings, but every English major is required to take "at least 3 units in literature written before 1830 (such courses are marked with a *), and 3 in literature written after 1830." </p>

<p>So, is "honesty" or "agenda" the driving force behind ISI's college guidebook? If they were honest, would they note that the editor of the ISI-funded conservative newspaper at Swarthmore stopped accepting their funds, stopped, attending their all-expenses paid conferences, and went public with editorials condemning ISI's tactics? See the inherent problems of intellectual honesty that arise when a college guidebook is published by a partisan political foundation?</p>

23

<p>"Chronologically"…"where appropriate"….you don’t say?!</p>

24

<p>Right. Where appropriate. </p>

<p>For example, some survey, creative writing, and genre courses cover a very long time-frame and/or do not fit into chronological categories:</p>

<p>Like these:</p>

<p>ENGL 071B. Core Course: The Lyric Poem in English</p>

<p>A survey of the history of the lyric poem in English from its origins in Old and Middle English to contemporary poetry, using an anthology. There will also be special emphasis on the essentials of prosody, the study of meter and rhythm. Each version of the course will also feature the in-depth study of one poet. </p>

<p>ENGL 070B. Fiction Writers’ Workshop</p>

<p>We’ll approach the challenge of constructing compelling narratives through a series of formal exercises and experiments. Students will read and comment on each other’s writing as they work to hone their own style and clarify their central thematic concerns. Twelve students are admitted to the class on the basis of a writing sample submitted during fall semester.</p>

25

<p>"For example, I'll turn to Reed College and it has this student poll that says "Almost Everyone Smokes" and of course that's not exactly an exciting prospect. Are these opinion polls accurate?"</p>

<p>So, anyway, back to your original point. Other than at musical events, I've spent a total of maybe four hours at Reed College, and that was almost two years ago. There were smokers congregated at every doorway we passed. My asthmatic younger daughter had to leave the student union rooms because the smell of cigarette smoke was so intense. (This was 4 months after the new no-indoor-smoking regulations in Portland went into effect.) Our tour guide was a chain smoker.</p>

<p>I suspect that the majority of Reedies do NOT smoke. I have no way of knowing, of course, because those we met did. That might indeed be the impression of members of student body polled, even those who did not smoke themselves.</p>

<p>We found "Best Colleges" to be, in the main, pretty accurate. No substitute for a visit or more in-depth review. Pretty good screening tool (I prefer Fiske).</p>

26

<p>I think Princeton Review is useful in its own way. However, it tends to present a characature of each college just by its descriptive categories and hyperbole student quotes. In many ways PR is a review of cartoon schools.</p>

<p>Fiske is more nuanced in its descriptions, communicating a lot of texture between the lines. The thing I really admire about Fiske is that they are able to effectively convey things that a particular student might find attractive or unattractive about each school, while staying positive in tone. If the school is a good fit, the review will sound like the greatest thing since sliced bread. But, if it's a lousy fit for another student, the exact same review will make that unmistakably clear. Since I'm not a good enough writer to do that, I admire that quality in the Fiske Guide.</p>

<p>I guess that my fundamental problem with the "Right Guide" is that do just the opposite. By the time you finish reading about any random sample of couple of dozen schools, they all sound utterly horrible, unsuitable for any student. Something is wrong with that approach. If I read a hundred restaurant reviews of the finest French restaurants and they all were thoroughly panned, I might start to think that may the reviewer just doesn't like French food and, therefore, writes reviews of limited consumer value.</p>