Colleges That Will Change The Way Think About Colleges Loren Pope Summary
Book: Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change The Way Think About Colleges, Loren Pope, 2012 (third revised edition), Penguin Books 1. The summary of Loren Pope’s message
In reading this extremely interesting book, I found three core messages from Loren Pope. First, is the importance of thinking critically, the process of selecting a college that means a lot in your life. Selecting colleges based on rankings or brand is easy, requiring no in depth research or thinking on your part. However this does not involve thinking critically which college would fit you best, and thus recommending students and parents to take another step than to just glance the superficial rankings and literature. Second, Pope emphasizes students and parents to focus of how to earn the best LEARNING experience in college. Pope strongly recommends you to decide what you want to do in your life and look for colleges that would best help you achieve that. …show more content…
He explains his 5 criteria for assessing good colleges for the purpose of learning as “Myth Busters,” and those are all reasons that ultimately go against choosing Ivy League institutions. He further expands his argument by saying Ivy League schools sacrifice undergraduates, honors research over teaching, and thus professors do not put in a lot of effort into teaching. The 40 Liberal Art Colleges introduced in this book generally complies his criteria. In particular, Pope emphasizes how the professors focus and commit to teaching and supporting students, sensibly engaging students in the professor’s own research projects. Also, he points out the fact of being small, enhances these colleges to be a tightly knit community where students as well as professors can be more collaborative, and learn from each
In reading this extremely interesting book, I found three core messages from Loren Pope. First, is the importance of thinking critically, the process of selecting a college that means a lot in your life. Selecting colleges based on rankings or brand is easy, requiring no in depth research or thinking on your part. However this does not involve thinking critically which college would fit you best, and thus recommending students and parents to take another step than to just glance the superficial rankings and literature. Second, Pope emphasizes students and parents to focus of how to earn the best LEARNING experience in college. Pope strongly recommends you to decide what you want to do in your life and look for colleges that would best help you achieve that. …show more content…
He explains his 5 criteria for assessing good colleges for the purpose of learning as “Myth Busters,” and those are all reasons that ultimately go against choosing Ivy League institutions. He further expands his argument by saying Ivy League schools sacrifice undergraduates, honors research over teaching, and thus professors do not put in a lot of effort into teaching. The 40 Liberal Art Colleges introduced in this book generally complies his criteria. In particular, Pope emphasizes how the professors focus and commit to teaching and supporting students, sensibly engaging students in the professor’s own research projects. Also, he points out the fact of being small, enhances these colleges to be a tightly knit community where students as well as professors can be more collaborative, and learn from each