This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.
Posted on 09/22/2009 5:09:21 PM PDT by jazusamo
There is so much for high school seniors and their parents to know about colleges that they not only need to get a lot of information but also need to make sure it is the right kind of information.
A number of college guides have useful information but, unfortunately, the best-known and most pretentious of these guides — "America's Best Colleges"— is grossly misleading.
There is no such thing as a "best" college, any more than there is any such thing as a "best" wife or a "best" husband. Who would be best for a particular person depends on that person.
Would we not consider it absurd if someone collected statistics on people and then used those statistics to rank individuals according to who would make the "best" wife or husband? Yet that is the approach "America's Best Colleges" is based on.
A college that would be best for a particular student could be a terrible place for that student's brother or sister. One of them might find West Point a great experience, while the other would fit in perfectly at Reed College— and each might be miserable at the other institution.
Choosing the college that is right for a particular person is not about the rankings of institutions. It is about matching a student with an institution that can enable that person to flourish while there, and to graduate with an education that is a foundation for a fulfilling life in the years ahead.
Among the things you need to know about a particular college is whether it has a real curriculum or just a smorgasbord of courses, so that it is possible to graduate knowing nothing about history, economics or science, for example. Some of the most prestigious colleges in the country are places where you can graduate completely ignorant of such fundamental subjects.
What also matters is whether the intellectual atmosphere is one in which competing ideas are explored and debated, or one in which there is a prevailing orthodoxy of political correctness that a student can challenge only at the risk of being ridiculed by the professor, given a low grade or— in some places— suspended or expelled for violating a campus speech code by giving an honest opinion about things where an orthodoxy is imposed, such as issues involving "race, class and gender."
In short, what is important is not choosing the "best" college, according to some statistics that conceal the arbitrary choices behind the objective-looking numbers. What is important is choosing the right college for you.
The best of the college guides reflects that difference in its title— "Choosing the Right College." Its latest edition has just been published. Like people, it has put on some weight over the years and its seventh edition is now 1,140 pages long. Unlike some of us, however, its additional weight is muscle rather than fat.
"Choosing the Right College" tells you whether there is or is not a curriculum at each of the colleges it covers and whether classes are taught by professors or by graduate students.
It also tells you whether the intellectual atmosphere is free or is hidebound with political correctness, and plagued by professors who think their job is to use the classroom as a place to sound off about their political ideology to a captive audience, even when the course is about chemistry or accounting.
"Choosing the Right College" also presents information on such things as black separatist organizations at Lafayette College, for example. Whether you are for or against such things, you need to know about them, in order to choose what you think is right for you.
Co-ed living arrangements are also discussed, including just how co-ed they are— that is, whether males and females simply live in the same dormitory and/or share the same room and/or use the same bathrooms and showers. It also mentions some colleges where you don't have to live co-ed at all, if you don't want to.
If you want to get more than one college guide, there is also "Barron's Profiles of American Colleges" which has much more statistical detail and can be a useful supplment. But "Choosing the Right College" is a must— even if it is not carried in your local bookstore, and you have to order it on-line or from its publisher, ISI Books in Wilmington, Delaware.
I’d probably starve to death just because I’d rather sit and contemplate, if I didn’t have the Ravenous Horde howling “I’m hungry!”
Basic rule I’ve learned: You don’t have to eat if you sleep, but you have to eat if you can’t sleep. On the mythical tropical isle (pour me a Bahama Breeze, please ...), you can sleep!
Never have had the opportunity to just snooze in a hammock and sip at an 'umbrella drink'. Whenever I was on a tropical island I was surfing or beachcombing or pestering the locals. . . . .
LOL!
I take my job with me wherever I go ... dishes, laundry, meals, diapers. It’s not like *anybody else* in the family is prepared to do the basic survival tasks ...
(I try not to be anti-male, but HONESTLY!)
. . . that is literally a first. And I don't let him do the laundry because he always puts the blue jeans or the red flannels in with the whites (passive aggressive no doubt). And he can't cook, at least nobody would want to eat anything he cooked.
HOWsomever, he can fix anything, including complicated electronic equipment and plumbing, and he plays the guitar for me while I cook . . . .
“The sad thing is that smart, ambitious and clear thinking grads from top schools are rare and need a little time to recover from the brain-washing they receive and look for at college.”
I have hired maybe 150 people for my various businesses. I blacklisted Harvard, and hired only 2 Wharton grads. Both of them fizzled. I had better luck with ex military who went to State U. They were fearless,loyal, and could swallow a heavy workload, bones and all!
LOL! That’s a great summary of your employees and preferences, of course the way things are going I’m going to need a job soon. You hiring? Just kidding, but happy to hear the military guys work out well in the civilian work force.
My college counselor wanted me to go to schools that were a terrible match, and I found out later she was sandbagging us at our schools of choice.
http://www.collegeguide.org/itembrowse.aspx?f=&m=1&p=1&s=
You can also get the electronic version of the book at the above site for USD25 - for 1 year. top right -> subscribe
Sometimes/occasionally, entries are also added or edited there. and you can do a search for a particular college, or sort them out according to criteria.
I’ve got grandkids coming of age - thanks for posting this...
Anoreth used to read “Human Events” and “Auto Week” to me while I cooked.
Thomas Sowell on the choice of college for your individual child is just naturally worth considering for a ping. IMHO.
Whoa! But . . . why? Seems like she would be writing her own pink slip if the kids don’t succeed.
This ping list is for articles of interest to homeschoolers. I hold both the Homeschool Ping List and the Another Reason to Homeschool Ping List. Please freepmail me to let me know if you would like to be added or removed from either list, or both.
bumping this for later....
Whoa! But . . . why? Seems like she would be writing her own pink slip if the kids don’t succeed.My college counselor wanted me to go to schools that were a terrible match, and I found out later she was sandbagging us at our schools of choice.
I heard of a guidance counselor whose sense of fairness was offended by the fact that the son of a successful businessman was in position to get an athletic scholarship that he "didn't need." And falsified his school record to prevent his getting it. Some people are just crazy.
1. The very name of the book has a double meaning that gives a clue as to the book's true purpose. This would be OK if the book openly stated its intent, but it does not. There is an element of deviousness here.
2. The book has a focus on liberal arts, so it will inform you about the political attitude of the history professors at a college. But many students are going to be majoring in the sciences, engineering, etc. where the political attitudes of their professors will be largely invisible and irrelevant.
We have had 3 Harvard Undergrad interns in the last few years since we are based in Boston: 1 was a just a condescending, presumptious jerk, 1 was very strange and 1 I could see being my boss in less than 10 years! We could not afford the last one or at least not without creating tremendous inequities with other young staff members. It was too bad. After 3 years he is well on his way to great success. He described himself as the one conservative in his political science class.
I grew up in Newton, Mass., and graduated from Boston College School of Management (class of 76). At the time, BC’s Honors Program allowed seniors to take course at HBS. I took two of them.
I am still a die hard Red Sox fan ;-)
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