Book Description

The competition for admission to the best colleges keeps getting tougher.

1.There are 12.5 million college undergraduates. Fewer than 90,000 attend the top twenty-five colleges.

2.Ten prominent institutions -- eight Ivy League schools, Standford, and MIT -- enrolled 1 percent of all entering freshmen, representing one-third of the highest academic achievers and test-takers in the nation.

3.There has been a substantial rise in applications to elite colleges and universities. In 1999

——Harvard received 19,000 applications -- including 2,900 from high school valedictorians -- for the 1,600 spaces for the class of 2003

——Stanford received more than 17,000 applications for 1,550 places; and

——Princeton received 14,875 applications for 1,694 places

Based on a survey of more than 4,000 current students at twenty of the country's top colleges

Academic reputation is the number-one reason students apply to Ivy League schools, but are they prepared for the host of other factors that will affect their success on campus? Inside the Top Colleges breaks through the "halo" of prestige surrounding the nation's elite schools to reveal what the quality of education and daily life is really like on these campuses. Every institution has its strengths and weaknesses; this book examines those factors that can result in a highly positive college experience or a potentially negative one. Students speak out on

The Top five advantages of an elite education

——Intellectual confidence

——Foundation for future self-education

——New intellectual and social perspectives

——Social connections

——Business/career connections

The top five student suggestions

——Reduce class size

——Increase diversity

——Increase faculty accessibility

——Provide better counseling

——Review core curriculum

At all these colleges, students complained about the stress of the workload and the cost.

From The Publisher

With serious crime, race, union strikes, soaring costs among the issues on Ivy League campuses, there is clearly a gap between how Americans perceive elite colleges and how they really are. In The Select, Howard Greene breaks through the halo effect to get to the truth of what life is really like at these universities.

Using advanced polling techniques, extensive focus groups and one-on-one in-depth interviews with students, Greene explores the crucial yet often ignored issues about the academic experience the price of a prestigious education; dating and social life; safety on campus; alcohol, drugs and eating disorders; political activism and correctness; and diversity and racism, in order to give parents and students a better overview of what to expect from America's top colleges.

This indispensable guide will break new ground and provide lasting reference for applicants and parents alike.

From Kirkus Reviews

colleges recalls that dullest of freshman classes: Statistics 101. Leading educational counselor and former Princeton admissions officer Greenes (Scaling the Ivy Wall in the '90s, with Robert Minton, not reviewed, etc.) concept of the ``Select'' includes just 20 schools: all the Ivies; top private schools like Stanford and Duke; and three top public schools, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; University of California, Berkeley; and University of Wisconsin, Madison. Together, he reports, these schools account for just 5 percent of all college students, and competition to get in is intense. But the real challenge is funding a ``select'' education. The average cost of tuition, room, and board at private universities now hovers at around $30,000 a year. These costs have forced increasing numbers of students to work part- or even full-time. This, combined with demanding course loads, has made college for many an unremitting grind, with little time left for those fond foundations of alumni reminiscences, socializing and extracurriculars. This is why Greene touts the leading public universities for cash-strapped students. Of course, as he well knows, this will take many of the private select schools back to their roots as havens for the rich and privileged. Surveying everything from academics to diversity to drugs and alcohol on campus, Greene finds little that is surprising. There are the usual complaints about minimal faculty contact, overwork, and stress. Students are also concerned about safety, think that political correctness may have gone too far, and worry about their futures. But the most frequent complaints are about food and climate. Interestingly, only 61 percent are satisfied they are getting good value for their money, indicating that more than a little collegiate laurel-resting is going on. There is the core of a good idea here, but its absolutely buried under mounds of tedious, blandly presented data.

About Author

Howard R. Greene, M.A., M.Ed., is a former admissions officer and member of the faculty board of advisers at Princeton University. As the nation's foremost educational consultant, Howard has counseled more than 25,000 students over the past thirty years. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he holds master's degrees from Harvard and New York University. He is the founder of Howard Greene & Associates, an educational consulting firm with offices in Connecticut and New York. He lives in Wilton, Connecticut.

Book Dimension:

Height (cm) 23.3 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 Width (cm) 15.6