Loren Pope wrote Colleges that Change Lives, which is well-known, but also a book entitled “Looking Beyond the Ivy League.” It is a little dated but still an excellent guide to colleges in the US. You might also want to google “little Ivies,” which consist of selective liberal arts colleges like Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Tufts, Wesleyan, and some others. We were a big fan of Clark, which is on the CTCL site. As we sat waiting in the Dartmouth admissions office, everyone was talking about Clark.
1 Like
I agree with those book recs, and add ‘The Hidden Ivies’ by Howard Greene. Helpful, detailed write-ups on around 60 schools (LACs and universities).
1 Like
The only college guide books that I recommend are: The Fiske Guide To Colleges 2020 (or the latest edition if the 2021 version is out) & US News Best Colleges (which appears in magazine form and is updated annually).
FWIW I am not a fan of the very dated books such as Colleges That Change Lives. CTCL will point you toward several schools with financial issues & with poor recruiting/job placement.
Additionally, if you have taken either the SAT or the ACT, then there is a list of 610 colleges & universities in the US by SAT score from highest to lowest. The article from 2015 is titled “The 610 Smartest Colleges in America”. This list may be important for you as many of the top ranked schools are NOT in the Ivy League. For example: Among the top 10 listed schools, six (CalTech, Chicago, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford, & Harvey Mudd) are NOT Ivy League schools. In fact, only four of the top 16 schools are in the Ivy League (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, & Columbia).
Although most colleges & universities in the US can prepare one for law school (which is an additional 3 year period of study), it is helpful to attend a school with highly intelligent & driven students as one learns much from one’s peers & from one’s environment.
Just finished reviewing the 40 schools listed in the book Colleges That Change Lives.
Almost all of the schools discussed have fewer than 2,000 fulltime undergraduate students.
30% of the 40 schools have first year retention rates of less than 80%.
Admission standards are extremely lenient for one targeting Ivy League schools.
The author engages in hyperbole in an attempt to sell readers on his unverified theme. For example: When asked by a student what is the difference between Juniata and Amherst, the author responded:
“Amherst has more very bright, more sophisticated, and more well-to-do freshmen than does Juniata, but by the time they’re seniors, the situation has been reversed.”
This was neither a credible nor believable response.
Most of the 40 schools discussed have disappointing graduation rates.
I regard the book CTCL as a semi-fictionalized sales pitch more than as a credible resource.
The CTCL book is badly out of date at this point (Loren Pope, the author, passed away in 2008), but CTCL does still market the schools as a group and keep a good website.
Many of the CTCL schools can be good for the right students, but none meet full need…and lack of affordability is linked to the low retention and/or grad rates that you are seeing. I concur that the Juniata/Amherst quote does not reflect reality.
1 Like
The book is very old. The website and college fairs are up to date. I view the site as a way to get students started in looking at other schools. It is true that the CTCL schools tend small. A student interested in Ivies might look at Little Ivies like Tufts, Amherst, Williams, Wesleyan, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Bates and others. I get my threads mixed up and usually recommend those as well at the CTCL site, just to explore different types of schools.
2 Likes