Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges

COLLEGES THAT CHANGE LIVES: 40 SCHOOLS THAT WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU THINK ABOUT COLLEGES POPE, L. (REVISED BY OSWALD, H. M.). 2012. NEW YORK: PENGUIN BOOKS. 340 PP.In this fourth edition of Colleges That Change Lives, Hilary Masell Oswald continues the work of author and education reformer Loren Pope, who passed away in zoo8, by shining a light on institutions that are focused specifically on educating undergraduate students. From the outset, Oswald echoes Pope's belief that the college experience should change students' lives. Further, she argues that compared to the academic experience at large flagship and Ivy League institutions, liberal arts colleges are frequently better for students because faculty members are rewarded for the quality of their teaching as well as for conducting research.Oswald notes that most of the faculty members she interviewed had chosen to teach at liberal arts institutions for one of two reasons: (a) they had earned an undergraduate degree at a similar institution and found it to be a powerful and formative experience or (b) they had been students or teaching assistants at large universities and found the teaching and learning experiences to be unsatisfying. Across the 40 liberal arts institutions featured in this book, faculty members demonstrate a commitment to and talent for teaching and mentoring undergraduate students.Oswald describes liberal arts institutions as places where community matters, values are central components of education, and learning is collaborative rather than competitive (p. 4). The author divides the institutions into six geographic regions and provides key statistics-including admission requirements, acceptance rates, typical financial aid awards, and more-at the end of each summary.INSTITUTIONAL RANKINGS VS. INSTITUTIONAL FITOswald ensures Popes legacy by encouraging students to select institutions based on "fit" rather than "ranking. " In order to find the right fit, she recommends that students be introspective and move beyond the popular-but inaccurate-college ranking systems. She observes that most ranking systems use input factors such as incoming student SAT scores, class rank, and professor salaries. These factors, however, have little or nothing to do with the education process.To demonstrate the absurdity of rankings, Oswald compares the quality of a college as measured by the grades and scores of the freshmen it admits to the quality of a hospital as measured by the health of the patients it admits. In both cases, the inputs are not nearly as important as the outcomes. The author recommends that students who are interested in a more accurate depiction of engagement and learning seek more salient information, such as institutional scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (nsee) and the Collegiate Learning Assessment (cla), a standardized measure of critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and communication skills.THE LIBERAL ARTS ADVANTAGEConsistent with the findings of Chopp et al (2014), Oswald contends that a liberal arts education equips students with the skills necessary to be adaptive learners. Rather than training students for job-specific skills, a liberal arts education "builds nimble minds and creates independent thinkers" (p. 9). Chopp et al (2014) argue that students who pursue a liberal arts education develop higher cognitive skills, increased sensitivity to ethical issues, and greater tolerance of ambiguity (p. 5). Additionally, Oswald notes that a liberal arts education helps students develop the skills employers want-including effective communication, critical thinking, analytical reasoning, and more, as reported in a 2009 survey of private-sector employers (aacu). INSTITUTIONAL OVERVIEWFor the 40 institutions identified in Colleges That Change Lives, Oswald describes unique program offerings and distinctive campus cultures as well as curricular and cocurricular programs and services that reflect high-impact educational practices (Kuh 2008). …