In the third post in this series on choosing a college, we are moving from websites to books. You remember those compilations of fact and fiction produced on tree pulp for general consumption. I guess that definition would have to be revised in this "Kindle" generation. Forget the social commentary. In this post I intend to focus on the Princeton Review's publication, The Best 373 Colleges.
In Choosing a College, Dr. Thomas Sowell seems not to place much stock in many of the college guides he reviewed. However, his book was published in 1989 and the Princeton Review series was first published in 1992. Had Dr. Sowell been able to include it in his treatise, I think he may have found many worthwhile features. This post will concentrate on a few that I think are most beneficial.
-The book provides a guide as to what a student should do during each year of high school to enable her to be admitted into college.
-It provides tips for getting financial aid in the form of scholarships and grants.
-It provides listings of "great schools" for 15 of the most popular undergraduate majors and the rationale for inclusion in the lists. The book gives detailed descriptions of how schools were selected from their surveys which included admisnistrative personnel and students.
-The Review presents 62 top 20 rankings in eight categories:
Academics/Administrative
Quality of Life
Politics
Demographics
Town Life
Extracurriculars
Social Scene
School by Type
-There are three "honor rolls" dealing with Financial Aid, Fire Safety and Green Rating.
In Part 3 of this volume, the schools that have been rated as the 373 best are then presented in complete profiles that contain facts and impressions by which you can decide to include or exclude the specific institution from your list of application possibilities.
It's a very good guide which I can personally recommend. Regarding good college guides, Dr. Sowell writes that,
Guides that are in your home can be read
whenever the time and the mood are right,
over a period of weeks and months.
Special things about particular colleges
can be underlined and comments put in the
margins to be looked at perhaps months
later, when you are ready to decide where
to send your applications - and still later
again, when making your final choice among
the colleges that accepted you. (p. 149)
Come to think of it, can you do all that with a Kindle? For these reasons and those listed above, I believe that the Princeton Review's, The Best 373 Colleges is a very wise investment.
As we begin the Spring Season (in reality, Spring Training), the constraints of other commitments will confine these blogs to a biweekly schedule. (I always liked alliteration!) The next post will be on March 16.
Showing posts with label college choice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college choice. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Unigo Revisited
In a blog way back on December 1, 2010, I raved about a website, www.unigo.com, founded by Jordan Goldman who partnered with The Wall Street Journal to provide a free service where over 30,000 "college students tell you what colleges won't". If you aren't familiar with the site, it's definitely worth your time to explore it.
In the previous post I wrote about the interesting videos of panel discussions featuring college admissions personnel and administrators that are available on the site. They also provide rankings as to which schools, according to their findings, are the safest, most political, most intellectual etc. As part of the discussion on choosing a college, I'd like to revisit Unigo to discuss its college match and college search features. If you search a specific college by name, you will see an updated college profile containing information about size, cost, etc. and student reviews.
The college match feature is especially interesting. In less than thirty questions, the search seems to cover all the bases regarding cost, size, entrance difficulty, location, etc. but also addresses safety and social issues such as drugs and drinking. Questions are written in a very conversational style. A portion of one such question follows:
-Looking for a fresh start someplace new? Which of these fake communities seems to be calling your name?
o Carbon Copytown. Everyone here is very much alike. Blending in will be easy.
o Eclectic Falls. This quaint village is as diverse as it is fun and exciting.
Your results are updated as you answer each question. You're given a percentage of how well you match specific colleges which meet the criterion the question addressed. To keep your interest, the questions are sprinkled with little "factoids" like, "More women graduate from high school but more men have bachelor's degrees". Some questions allow you to select more than one answer. You can also find colleges by state and majors.
I presented the first post specifically addressing college search and matching tools in mid-January. That article focused on the search and match features on The College Board site, www.collegeboard.com. If you take one or, better yet, both of these inventories, you'll come away with some very good leads as to colleges that will meet your needs. Many schools have some kind of winter break coming up soon. Juniors should plan to use at least some of that time productively to advance their post high school plans.
In the previous post I wrote about the interesting videos of panel discussions featuring college admissions personnel and administrators that are available on the site. They also provide rankings as to which schools, according to their findings, are the safest, most political, most intellectual etc. As part of the discussion on choosing a college, I'd like to revisit Unigo to discuss its college match and college search features. If you search a specific college by name, you will see an updated college profile containing information about size, cost, etc. and student reviews.
The college match feature is especially interesting. In less than thirty questions, the search seems to cover all the bases regarding cost, size, entrance difficulty, location, etc. but also addresses safety and social issues such as drugs and drinking. Questions are written in a very conversational style. A portion of one such question follows:
-Looking for a fresh start someplace new? Which of these fake communities seems to be calling your name?
o Carbon Copytown. Everyone here is very much alike. Blending in will be easy.
o Eclectic Falls. This quaint village is as diverse as it is fun and exciting.
Your results are updated as you answer each question. You're given a percentage of how well you match specific colleges which meet the criterion the question addressed. To keep your interest, the questions are sprinkled with little "factoids" like, "More women graduate from high school but more men have bachelor's degrees". Some questions allow you to select more than one answer. You can also find colleges by state and majors.
I presented the first post specifically addressing college search and matching tools in mid-January. That article focused on the search and match features on The College Board site, www.collegeboard.com. If you take one or, better yet, both of these inventories, you'll come away with some very good leads as to colleges that will meet your needs. Many schools have some kind of winter break coming up soon. Juniors should plan to use at least some of that time productively to advance their post high school plans.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Choosing a College
By this point you should have an idea of what you would like to do and how to prepare for it. Does your career of interest require college, trade or technical school or even apprenticeship, a topic we'll investigate in the future? For those who require a college degree, the biggest dilemma which now presents itself is which college to choose. An invaluable book which I've referenced in the past is, Choosing a College by Dr. Thomas Sowell. The book doesn't seem to be available from Amazon.com but you may be able to find it in the library. (You remember the library, that brick building somewhere near the center of town with those pre-Kindle paper things called books!?!) Dr. Sowell is a brilliant economist who is quite prolific in writing about economics, education and history. As stated previously, the book was first published in 1989. While some of the information about specific schools is dated, the philosophy and technique underlying the college choice process is relevant and that's the major purpose of the book.
There are numerous resources available to help you in your search. Since I wrote about the College Board in the last post outlining use of PSAT results, I'll begin with that. There are many features of www.collegeboard.com that are excellent resources for students, parents and education professionals. The college search and match features are well worth investigating. If you know of a college in which you're interested, you can search it by name and get a complete profile of one of over 3,500 schools. If you haven't a clue or only have a school or two that you know of, use the college match feature. You are asked a series of questions which, based on your responses, will match you with specific schools that meet your preferences as to size, cost, majors and a host of relevant characteristics. You can then use the list of results to further refine your choices.
An excellent feature on this site is the side by side comparison. You can compare up to four colleges at one time. Once you put in the names, a one page "side by side comparison" results which gives you location, admissions criteria, size and cost. In addition, there is the "How do I stack up?" feature which lets you put in personal information as to your grades and test scores and results in a comparison of how you "stack up" against the competition at that school. You can save all of these results in a personal account which you can set up free of charge as a PSAT/SAT taker. This site is definitely a keeper!
There are numerous resources available to help you in your search. Since I wrote about the College Board in the last post outlining use of PSAT results, I'll begin with that. There are many features of www.collegeboard.com that are excellent resources for students, parents and education professionals. The college search and match features are well worth investigating. If you know of a college in which you're interested, you can search it by name and get a complete profile of one of over 3,500 schools. If you haven't a clue or only have a school or two that you know of, use the college match feature. You are asked a series of questions which, based on your responses, will match you with specific schools that meet your preferences as to size, cost, majors and a host of relevant characteristics. You can then use the list of results to further refine your choices.
An excellent feature on this site is the side by side comparison. You can compare up to four colleges at one time. Once you put in the names, a one page "side by side comparison" results which gives you location, admissions criteria, size and cost. In addition, there is the "How do I stack up?" feature which lets you put in personal information as to your grades and test scores and results in a comparison of how you "stack up" against the competition at that school. You can save all of these results in a personal account which you can set up free of charge as a PSAT/SAT taker. This site is definitely a keeper!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)