College Education

Ivy League universities can no longer be trusted to produce well-educated students. Even a cursory review of the course titles at top schools shows that these $320,000-plus diplomas may confer legacy prestige to graduates, but not necessarily knowledge or wisdom. At Cornell, for example, students can take Queer Girlhood and Intersectional Disability Studies. Even worse, these courses actually fulfill general education requirements. It is still possible to earn a great education at Ivy League universities, but doing so requires prudence and persistence.

From best-selling author Paul Tough, an indelible and explosive book on the glaring injustices of higher education, including unfair admissions tests, entrenched racial barriers, and crushing student debt. Now updated and expanded for the pandemic era. Combining vivid and powerful personal stories with deep, authoritative reporting, Paul Tough explains how we got into this mess and explores the innovative reforms that might get us out.

Learn how the 17-year-old author improved his SAT score by 240 points, putting his score into the 99.79th percentile. In this concise audiobook, the author reveals all the strategies and tips he picked up along the way. The audiobook also includes two smart study schedules that can be used to work through the practice exams released online for free by the College Board.

Studying for the SAT doesn’t have to feel like pulling teeth, and it definitely doesn’t have to bore you to tears. Welcome to Master SAT Vocabulary Words While Laughing Out Loud!, the book that flips the traditional drudgery of vocab drills on its head. Inside, you’ll find 1,000 high-frequency SAT words brought to life through jokes, funny stories, and quirky scenarios designed to make you laugh and learn. Forget the stale flashcards and uninspiring word lists—this book turns vocabulary into an adventure that’s as entertaining as your favorite sitcom.

As the commercialization of American higher education accelerates, more and more students are coming to college with the narrow aim of obtaining a preprofessional credential. The traditional four-year college experience—an exploratory time for students to discover their passions and test ideas and values with the help of teachers and peers—is in danger of becoming a thing of the past. In College, prominent cultural critic Andrew Delbanco offers a trenchant defense of such an education, and warns that it is becoming a privilege reserved for the relatively rich.

On the first day of high school, Kristina Ellis' mom - a single, working mother who lost her husband to cancer - informed her that she could not financially support her after graduation. Kristina would need to find her own way to pay for college. As an average student with less-than-impressive test scores, Kristina realized she would have to sell herself to scholarship committees if she wanted to stand out. That's when she devised the plan that led to her receiving over $500,000 in scholarships.

Upward mobility through the path of higher education has been an article of faith for generations of working-class, low-income, and immigrant college students. While we know this path usually entails financial sacrifices and hard work, very little attention has been paid to the deep personal compromises such students have to make as they enter worlds vastly different from their own.

This Handbook & Survival Guide will help new students settle in well & make the most of their college and university experience.

What is the value of a college degree? The four-year college experience is as American as apple pie. So is the belief that higher education offers a ticket to a better life. But with student-loan debt surpassing the $1 trillion mark and unemployment of college graduates at historic highs, people are beginning to question that value. In College (Un)Bound, Jeffrey J. Selingo, editor at large of the Chronicle of Higher Education, argues that America’s higher education system is broken.

Class ends. Students pack up and head back to their dorms. The professor, meanwhile, goes to her car...to catch a little sleep, and then eat a cheeseburger in her lap before driving across the city to a different university to teach another, wholly different class. All for a paycheck that, once prep and grading are factored in, barely reaches minimum wage.

Tone Setters in the Academy is your guide to transforming challenges into opportunities. Discover the power of becoming a "tone setter"—someone who shapes their environment with positivity and wisdom. This book offers practical strategies, known as "tone setter mindsets," to help you cultivate your unique tone, manage energy, and build resilience. Whether you're early in your career or contemplating a pivot, you'll find actionable insights to elevate your experience and effectiveness.

The Canterbury Tales & Paradise Lost are two epic works that have been entertaining—and sometimes exasperating—readers for centuries. In a series of lectures, literary scholar Elizabeth McNamer provides engaging insights into these two iconic works of British literature. Geoffrey Chaucer's merry charm and John Milton's high seriousness become relatable to modern minds when explored by Dr. McNamer. Chaucer's lively, lusty, and never boring Pilgrims have tales to tell that for six centuries have delighted the hearts of readers and listeners.

This five session guide builds your vocabulary for college by presenting challenging words in multiple settings. Learning new vocabulary is a multi-stage process involving multiple interactions with new words in context. This course achieves this by explaining words through their definitions as you would expect, but then presenting them in stories, with their opposites, explaining relevant Greek and Latin word stems, semantic scales and using other proven techniques to rapidly expand your vocabulary via challenging, but commonly used words.

Many students start college, but how many students graduate from college? The questions in this book will help students and parents to strategically think about how to enjoy and graduate from college in a timely fashion.

Is your family gearing up for the college admissions rollercoaster? College Application Bootcamp: Get Ahead This Summer is a timely guide that turns the summer before senior year into a strategic advantage. Designed for rising seniors (Class of 2026, 2027, and beyond) and their supportive parents, this book delivers a step-by-step summer action plan to conquer applications with confidence. Learn how to craft standout Common App essays, boost SAT/ACT scores, polish your resume, and secure recommendation letters before the fall frenzy.

How to Teach College is an invaluable resource for professors teaching in increasingly fraught American classrooms. With a special emphasis on teaching students from diverse backgrounds and potentially controversial subjects, this posthumously published book comes to us in Loewen’s vibrant, original, and inimitable voice.

The Complete Guide to College Transfer is a practical how-to for current and former college students who are considering transferring to a different college. Even though over a million students embark on the journey of transferring colleges every year, and over 40 million Americans have some college credits but no degree, few resources exist to guide them through the complex process of transferring institutions.

I did my degree differently. I deprioritized and reprioritized. I planned and plotted. I put my life before my books. I tried and tested every method I could for efficient reading, writing, and studying. In All the Work You Shouldn't Do you'll learn how to get the most from your degree and make time for the things you want to pursue without letting stress take over.

Dive into the ultimate preparation experience with the MCAT Q&A Study Guide, meticulously designed to help you conquer the Medical College Admission Test with confidence and precision. This comprehensive book transforms the way you prepare, fitting seamlessly into your busy lifestyle—whether you're commuting, working out, or tackling chores, every moment becomes an opportunity to excel.

American college teaching is in crisis, or so we are told. But we've heard that complaint for the past 150 years, as critics have denounced the poor quality of instruction in undergraduate classrooms. Students daydream in gigantic lecture halls while a professor drones on, or they meet with a teaching assistant for an hour of aimless discussion. The modern university does not reward teaching, so faculty members at every level neglect it in favor of research and publication.