Sweetland Jane - The other college guide: a roadmap to the right school for you

2015 by Jane Sweetland, Paul Glastris, and the Staff of the Washington Monthly

Cartoons copyright 2015 by Monte Wolverton

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher.

The publisher is grateful for permission to reprint the following material:

The Considerator on page 10 is reprinted with permission from California Competes.

So Where Are You Going? on page 24 is reprinted with permission from the Washington State Workforce Training & Education Coordinating Board.

The Career Clusters Interest Survey on pages 26-30 is reprinted with permission from the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc).

The Request for Admission Application Fee Waiver on page 50 is reprinted with permission from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).

The illustrations on pages 8990, and 9293 are adapted from College Results Online with permission from The Education Trust.

The College App Map on page 207 is reprinted with permission from the King Center Charter School in Buffalo, NY.

The Student Consent for Release of Information form on page 246 is reprinted with permission from the California State University, Sacramento, Office of the University Registrar.

The Cost Comparison Worksheet on page 295 is reprinted with permission from the National Community Tax Coalition.

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Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2015

Distributed by Perseus Distribution

ISBN 978-1-62097-035-5 (E-BOOK)

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CONTENTS

HELPFUL TOOLS

HELPFUL TOOLS

HELPFUL TOOLS

THE WASHINGTON MONTHLYS COLLEGE RANKINGS:

HELPFUL TOOLS

HELPFUL TOOLS

HELPFUL TOOLS

HELPFUL TOOLS

HELPFUL TOOLS

Ready?

Choosing to go to college is one of those major, super-important, really, really critical decisions in life. After all, college could be the most valuable investment you ever make in your future. It could also be where you meet your closest group of friends, or where you decide what your career is going to be. Of course, college isnt for everybody, but since you picked up this book, our guess is that its for you.

But heres the thing. Choosing to go to college is just the very first step. The next stepschoosing the right college for you and then getting there, and getting through all the way to graduationare even more important. And thats where things really start to get exciting, scary, intimidating, thrilling, and, yeah, downright confusing.

Its a journeyan exploration, really. Remember reading about the explorers who were the first Europeans to encounter North America? Sailors who couldnt swim sailing across an ocean full of monsters to a New World they werent sure existed? In some ways, youre like an explorer on a journey and youre not sure exactly where it will lead because its sailing into the future and who can really know about that? The sheer amount of information can make you feel like youre in the noisy, swirling center of a disorienting storm. But heres the good news: you have a chart, marking the known obstacles and signaling where youre likely to hit a current that may be pushing you in the wrong direction. Our goal for this guide is to demystify the process of going to college. We want you to know about the resources that are free and available, and we want you to know the questions you canand shouldask. We want you to avoid currents that seem convenient but will push you off course, we want you to build a network that will help you in every stage of your life, and we want you to pay as little as possible and graduate with a degree that matters.

This book will help you do all that successfully, in ways no other college guidebook on the market can, because it is different from those other books in four fundamental ways:

Other books cater (though they dont come right out and say so) mostly to students from well-to-do families trying to get into the most exclusive, priciest schools. The Other College Guide is for every student. Whether youre rich, poor, or in the middle, or get straight As or mostly Cs, this book will help you find a challenging, high-quality school thats right for you.

Other books, like U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges, rank schools based on how many students they turn away, or how much money they raise and spend, or how other college presidents rate them. But these metrics tell you next to nothing about how much actual learning goes on in the classroom. They are mostly measures of inputs, not outcomes. So The Other College Guide ignores such criteria and instead ranks colleges based on the best available data about what really matters (or should matter) to you. Which schools will charge you a fair price and not bury you in debt (hint: you need to look beyond the sticker price)? Which schools help students like you graduate (going to college but not getting a degree is an almost complete waste of your time and money)? Which provide degrees that allow you to earn a decent income (at least enough to pay off your student loans, and hopefully a whole lot more)?

Other books are full of happy talk about how wonderful Americas higher education system is and how every college has something to offer. Baloney! There are a lot of terrible colleges out there. Well name names and help you avoid them. The system is confusing, complicated, full of trap doors, and often unfair. Well guide you through it safely.

Other books only profile the most prestigious colleges or the Best Party Schools. We offer detailed profiles of 50 great schools that will maximize your chance of succeeding, academically and in life (the profiles begin on ).