Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth about America's Top Schools

by Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Book Overview

Introduction by William J. Bennett In this thoroughly revised and expanded edition of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s critically acclaimed college guide, Choosing the Right College, 110 of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 080284801X
• ISBN13: 9780802848017
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
• Length: 820 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Solid view

This is not a book for the first time browser. If you are just looking for the scoop on your favorite name brand college then forget this book.Read the Introduction carefully and you will see that the philosophy of this ISI approach is to value the schools that have a curriculum that they believe falls into the category of a "Core".Their belief is that there is a body of information and fundamental skills that are universal to a "well-educated " person. They believe that many colleges have eroded this with "fluff" curriculum courses and lowering of standards. This book reviews schools that they believe have not seriously eroded academic standards. An excellent book for parents. It helped me choose Kenyon College for my daughter last year over more seemingly prestigious schools. The authors were exactly right in their evaluation of an outstanding, rigorous, yet not brutally competitive college with great scholarly teachers that imparted a love of their subject with compassion to the students. I did not find this academic approach in any other of the college books.

A "must have" for families with college-bound students

Choosing a college is a tough task--whether you're the student, their parent or their college counselor. This book definitely makes the process easier.The typical high school junior receives dozens of glossy college viewbooks in the mail from the time they complete their first PSAT throughout their senior year. These viewbooks would have you believe that there's not a college out there that doesn't have very small classes, bright and multi-talented students, professors who are at each student's beck and call, and (let's not forget the classic) a class or two held outdoors, preferably with a beach nearby.While the picture is a pretty one, it's not complete. This book clues you in about what education is really like at some of the nation's most revered colleges and universities. The editors approach the book from the viewpoint that a classic liberal arts undergraduate education is the most valuable to the individual and society so their natural focus is on how well this type of education is provided at various institutions. A classic liberal arts education highlights Western Civilization's developments in math, science and literature and this book's editors are determined in revealing how closely each college's core curriculum reflects that bent.If, instead, you're looking for a college or university where the dogma is politically correct, where there is no absolute truth and where students call the shots, you might still appreciate reading this book because it is clear in explaining just what campuses feature that type of education.Each school is reviewed through interviews with current professors and students, with detailed evaluations of curriculum, with a bit of the school's history and goals, and even, in some cases, by checking out which library sections are well-stocked and with what type of books. The editors reveal each school's highly-politicized departments, if any, as well as what student life is really like.While I would have liked to have seen more colleges reviewed in this book, the authors do a good job of targeting the "name" schools and also including many lesser-known institutions which the editors feel are doing a an exceptional job in educating students. This helped our family incredibly because it steered us to several schools we might not have considered.How accurate is the book? I can only speak anecdotally; we have a son who attends Thomas Aquinas College (we first heard of it in this book) and, after a year of school, he re-read the review of his school and found it absolutely on target. With such a solid correlation between what was written about TAC and the way it actually is, I have faith in the editors' reviews of the other schools in this book.In short, this book is a real gem, with solid information that is much more revealing than the typical college guidebook.

Are there any good colleges left?

This college guide is based on what have become on many college campuses today radical premises: 1) There are some important things to learn, and not all college freshmen already know these things (or what they are) before they even get to college; 2) before you criticize, condemn or just ignore all "Western" culture, perhaps you should actually know something about it; 3) colleges should encourage critical thinking and balanced study over simple absorption of commonly accepted points of view; and 4) the First Amendment should be allowed free exercise on college campuses. It does a good job of describing to what extent the colleges profiled in the book fit these premises.If you haven't followed the changes in the American university in the last 30 years, while you were out some big changes have happened. The confluence of postmodern, poststructuralist theory and radical leftist politics have converted many universities into ideologically-driven intellectual killing fields. The misuse of the PM/PS discoveries of linguistic and cultural contexts to justify "deconstructing" all "truths" except those asserted by whomever is doing the deconstructing have led to the notion that there are no universal truths, only points of view and culturally-relative constructs. Of course, that point of view is asserted to be universally true across all cultures, but never mind. Why is this relevant to choosing a college?The rise of PM/PS relativism has been used as the intellectual justification to abandon core curricula and the study of Western cultural heritage. If there are no truths, then there are only power elites pushing their culturally constructed points of view. In the case of Western civilization, this has meant the dominance of the oppressive, racist, imperialistic patriarchy. If Western culture is to be studied at all, it is only to be "deconstructed"," which means attacked and discredited in toto. Chaucer, Plato, Homer, Plotinus, St. Augustine, Kant, Milton, and all the rest are relevant only as examples of a culture that is corrupt and illegitimate at its core, end of discussion. Using the honorable goals of encouraging the histories and points of view of other cultures, the new proponents of "multiculturalism," and "diversity" have in fact created a climate in which all cultures are worthy of honor except the one that gave birth to that concept. And "diversity" really means, in good Orwellian fashion, adherence to a narrow view critical of all things Western. Under this point of view, the shortcomings of Western civilization are the ONLY aspects of WC worth studying. Not merely that these may be valid aspects to study, but that they are the ONLY aspects worthy of study. This book attempts to root out colleges (and programs or departments within colleges) that still offer at least the option of studying the non-politically fashionable aspects of the Western canon.That is why the premises of this book have become radical on today's campuses. You can gla

By Thomas Sowell In His Column

August 24, 2001 (in his syndicated newspaper column)Choosing a collegeBy Thomas SowellAbout this time every year, high school seniors and their parents start trying to figure out how to choose a college. With application deadlines for some colleges starting as early as this fall for students who want to begin college next fall, there is not a lot of time. When you take into account the lead time needed to apply to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test or the American College Testing Program's exam -- and then the time before the results are tabulated and sent out to the college admissions offices -- there is not much time left, even for those students who are applying for colleges whose deadlines are next January or February. Nevertheless, a hasty decision can have repercussions that last for years. Campus stresses can lead to psychiatric problems, drug dependency or even suicide. It happens from the Ivy League to Podunk U. One lovely young woman committed suicide by jumping from the building in which I had my office at UCLA and I saw her body in the bushes on my way to work. Another whom I encountered had picked up a devastating drug habit at Harvard. Much more is involved in choosing a college than whether they have prestigious professors or high SAT scores. On some campuses, black students will live as segregated a life as in the days of the Jim Crow South, and find other black students resenting them if they spend their time in the library or at the computer lab, instead of in racial breast-beating activities. But the atmosphere is very different on other campuses where students of all races can make education their top priority. None of this is covered in the brightly colored brochures that the college admissions offices send you and most college guides don't get down to this kind of nitty gritty. However, there is one college guide that does. It is titled "Choosing the Right College" and it has an introduction by Bill Bennett. The National Catholic Register calls it: "A godsend for anyone who wants to know how to beat the academic establishment and actually get an education." There are many colleges and universities where it is possible to get a fine education -- but where you can also graduate without learning anything that you don't want to learn. You can get a degree from some of the most prestigious institutions in America without having a clue about science, history, math or economics, because you take only the courses you want to take. The latest edition of Choosing the Right College quotes a Harvard student: "You can get away without learning a scrap of European or U.S. history." It also quotes a Harvard professor who says that the core curriculum there "is absolutely onerous in its gobbling up of students' time in courses that often enough are weak fare." And for four years of this, you are paying over a hundred grand in tuition! Choosing the Right College is not just about muck-raking. It also tells you about colleges and universities

Good Advice on Campus Life

Homeschoolers and others concerned with safety and overall moral quality of life on campus will find Choosing the Right College provides detailed advice. Combined with specifics on the quality of education, this makes the guide a real stand-out.