The other college guide A roadmap to the right school for you

Jane Sweetland

Book - 2015

"A college degree has never been more important-or more expensive. If you're not made of money, where can you get an amazing liberal arts education without your parents having to remortgage the house or cash in their retirement fund? Which degrees will allow you to fulfill your dreams and earn a decent paycheck? What do you really need to know if you're the first in your family to go to college? How do you find good schools that offer a well-rounded campus life for black or Latino students? From the staff of Washington Monthly comes a new kind of college guide, inspired by and including the magazine's signature alternative college rankings. The Other College Guide features smartly designed, engaging chapters on finding t...he best-fit schools and the real deal about money, loans, and preparing for the world of work. This essential higher ed handbook also highlights information on what to look for (and watch out for) in online programs and for-profit colleges and concludes with fifty profiles of remarkable but frequently overlooked schools. All things being unequal, The Other College Guide will provide American students-and their families and school counselors-with the honest and practical information they need to make sense of the college process and carve a path to the future they imagine. "--

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Subjects
Published
New York : New Press, The 2015.
Language
English
Main Author
Jane Sweetland (author)
Other Authors
Paul Glastris (author)
Physical Description
vii, 408 pages : color illustrations, color charts ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographic references (pages 400-408).
ISBN
9781620970065
  • 1. Choosing To Go:
  • An Introduction to this Guide
  • 2. Moving Up in the World:
  • Setting Goals and Imagining Your Future
  • Helpful Tools
  • Careers Clusters Interest Survey
  • Career Clusters Linked to Your Interests
  • 3. If The School Fits, Pick It:
  • Finidng Your Type of College
  • Helpful Tools
  • Request for Admission Application Fee Waiver
  • The Four-Way Fit: Questions to Ask Yourself
  • The Four-Way Fit Worksheet: Build Your Own Rankings
  • 4. The Other College Rankings:
  • Making a List of the Right Schools For You
  • Helpful Tools
  • The Four-Way Fit + Rankings Worksheet
  • The Washington Monthly's College Rankings
  • Best-Bang-for-the-Buck Colleges (by region)
  • Affordable Elite Colleges
  • Best Community Colleges
  • Best-Bang-for-the-Buck HBCU's
  • 5. Troubled Waters:
  • The Community College Transfer Swamp
  • Helpful Tools
  • Sample Schedule and Milestones Chart
  • 6. The Here and Now:
  • Taking Stock of Where You Are
  • Helpful Tools
  • College-going Activities Plan (9th-12th grade)
  • Sample Senior Timeline Table
  • Asking for Help: A List of Questions
  • 7. Tasting Victory:
  • Preparing to Succeed
  • 8. Families are Complicated:
  • The Tricky Business of Transitions
  • Helpful Tools
  • Sample Student Consent Form for Release of Information
  • 9. Getting In:
  • Demystifying College Admission
  • Helpful Tools
  • How's the Fit? Grid
  • 10. It's All About the Benjamins:
  • How To Pay For College
  • Helpful Tools
  • Cost Comparison Worksheet
  • Glossary of Financial Aid Terms
  • 11. Carpe Diem:
  • Making The Most of Your First Year
  • 12. Keep Up the Good Work:
  • Employment After College
  • 13. Do Unto Others:
  • Non Profit and Public Sector Careers
  • 50 Schools You Should Know About
  • Midwest
  • Northeast
  • South
  • Southeast
  • West
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
Review by Choice Review

A guide like this that focuses on the economics of finding the right college must address such issues as value for money, the likelihood of graduating, and worthwhile degrees that produce jobs. The authors have written chapters on setting goals and identifying careers students might have an interest in and for which they have aptitude. Checklists identify colleges that meet these goals. A rankings chapter includes over 1,500 colleges sorted by region and considers a variety of factors, including student loan default rates, graduation costs based on family income, the number of students admitted, and ACT/SAT scores. It also ranks affordable elite colleges, the best community colleges in the country, and historically black schools. Other chapters address the challenges of moving from a two-year to four-year college, cover the organization skills needed to apply to college, and offer pithy advice on navigating complicated fee and financial aid options. A variety of checklists and work forms can assist with making college planning decisions. This work complements traditional guides by addressing practical issues about affordability and making the right choices, which makes it more likely a student will successfully graduate. Useful for all public and academic library career and college-guide collections. Summing Up: Recommended. High school students; two-year technical program students; college guidance counselors. --Christine E. King, Iowa State University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review

Which students-and, of course, the parents bankrolling some of them-wouldn't like to know about "best bang for the buck" and "affordable elite" colleges? Washington Monthly has crunched lists with that criteria for years and has now released this reference, which includes these and other rankings from the magazine plus wrap-around text on topics including financial aid, the "community college transfer swamp," making the most of your first year, employment after college, and more. No index is provided, yet many insights will be gleaned from perusing this "here's the real deal" narrative. VERDICT A handy GPS guide for navigating college.-Judy Quinn, formerly with Library Journal (c) Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.