Best Colleges 2017: Find the Best Colleges for You!
347
Best Colleges 2017: Find the Best Colleges for You!
347Paperback(Soft Cover)
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781931469784 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | U.S. News & World Report |
| Publication date: | 10/25/2016 |
| Series: | Best Colleges |
| Edition description: | Soft Cover |
| Pages: | 347 |
| Product dimensions: | 7.60(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
Anne McGrath is the managing editor of U.S. News & World Report's publications. She has created and implemented the editorial vision for numerous editions of U.S. News' annual "Best" guidebooks — such as Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools, and Best Hospitals — as well as editing such U.S. News publications as A Parent's Guide to STEM and U.S. News Ultimate Guide to Law Schools. A former high school English teacher, Anne's experience as a magazine journalist includes extensive coverage of education, health, personal finance, and investing.
Robert J. Morse is chief data strategist for U.S. News & World Report and has worked at the company since 1976. He develops the methodologies and surveys U.S. News' annual education rankings, such as Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools, and Best Global Universityies. Bob keeps a close eye on higher-education trends to make sure the rankings offer prospective students the best analysis available. He is a frequently quoted authority on quality measurements in education.
Dr. Lynn F. Jacobs is an award-winning professor of Art History at the Universityof Arkansas and co-creator of the Professors' Guide books and articles. She and her husband, Jeremy S. Hyman have co-authored such books as "The Secrets of College Success," "The Secrets of Picking a College (and Getting In!)," and "Professors' Guide to Getting Good Grades in College." Jacobs and Hyman write a weekly Professors' Guide column for usnews.com and are frequent speakers at college orientations and first-year experience classes.
Jeremy S. Hyman founder and chief architect of the Professsors' Guide series of books and articles. An expert in Early Modern Philosophy, Jeremy has taught at the Universityof Arkansas, UCLA, MIT, and Princeton University. He received the Universityof California Regents award for distinguished teaching. He and his wife, Dr. Lynn F. Jacobs, have co-authored such books as "The Secrets of College Success," "The Secrets of Picking a College (and Getting In!)," and "Professors' Guide to Getting Good Grades in College." Jacobs and Hyman write a weekly Professors' Guide column for usnews.com and are frequent speakers at college orientations and first-year experience classes.
Ned Johnson is founder of and tutor-geek at PrepMatters (prepmatters.com), where, along with colleagues, he torments teens with test prep, educational counseling, and general attempts to help them thrive. He is the co-author of "Conquering the SAT: How Parents Can Help Teens Overcome the Pressure and Succeed." Ned is a sought-after speaker on best practices of study skills, sleep deprivation, parent-teen dynamics and test anxiety.
Arlene Weintraub is a science journalist and author with 20 years of experience writing about healthcare, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Her new book, Heal: The Vital Role of Dogs in the Search for Cancer Cures (ECW Press 2015), brings to life the world of comparative oncology and the many ways dogs are helping in the war on cancer. Her first book, Selling the Fountain of Youth (Basic Books 2010), is an expose on the anti-aging industry.
Margaret Loftus is an award-winning journalist, editor, and content creator specializing in food, travel, higher education, and healthcare. She has worked for a variety of print and digital media outlets including U.S. News & World Report, NationalGeographic.com, and Virtuoso Life magazine. She is a contributingn editor for National Geographic Traveler.
Courtney Rubin was for five years a London-based staff writer for People magazine. She has reported stories on six continents, in countries including Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Rubin, a former senior writer for Washingtonian magazine, has written for the New York Times magazine, U.S. News & World Report's guidebooks, Time, Marie Claire,The Guardian and other publications. She is the author of The Weight-Loss Diaries (McGraw-Hill, 2004).
Beth Brophy is a Washington writer of fiction and non-fiction whose books include "Reunion," "My Ex-Best Friend: A Novel of Suburbia," and "Everything College Didn’t Teach You About Money," She is co-author of "The Complete Book of Aunts" and contributor to the anthology "Mommy Wars." Brophy was a reporter in the Washington bureau of Forbes, a founding business reporter and columnist at USA Today, and a writer and editor at U.S. News and World Report. Her articles, essays and book reviews have appeared in numerous publications including: AARP Bulletin, The The Washington Post, TV Guide, Washingtonian, Kiplinger, Business Week, Ladies Home Journal, and Good Housekeeping.
Brian Kelly is the Editor and Chief Content Officer of U.S. News & World Report, who guided the former newsweekly magazine through its transition into a major multimedia source of news and consumer information in such "life decision" fields as education, health care, and personal finances. A former Washington Post senior editor, Brian is the author or co-author of four books — "Amazon," "The Last Forest: The Amazon in the Age of Globalization," "Adventures in Porkland:: How Washington Wastes Your Money and Why They Won't Stop," and "The Four Little Dragons."
Table of Contents
From the Editor’s Desk Chapter One: Study the Schools A Focus on Freshman Success: Many schools are working harder to help ease the transition to college life. Programs to consider A Degree and Job Skills, Too : As you research colleges, consider how well each will prepare you for the workplace Two Years, No Tuition? A move toward free community college has begun A Sense of Belonging: There can be great appeal in attending one of the country’s minority-serving institutions, colleges that aim to provide educational opportunities and support for students in a given group The Fast Track to a Degree: A look at three-year bachelor’s programs and accelerated graduate degrees Is a Military Academy Right for You? You can get a first-class education and your tuition paid for if you’re willing to serve Chapter Two: Take a Road Trip Colorado: Universityof Colorado–Boulder, Universityof Denver, Colorado School of Mines, Colorado College Connecticut: Yale University, Wesleyan University, Universityof Connecticut, Connecticut College Louisiana & Mississippi: Xavier Universityof Louisiana, Tulane University, Millsaps College, Universityof Mississippi WHY I PICKED... California Institute of Technology l Truman State Universityl Rutgers UniversityCreighton Universityl Rice Universityl Colby College Gonzaga Universityl Stetson Universityl Vassar College Chapter Three: The U.S. News Rankings How We Rank Colleges Best National Universityies Best National Liberal Arts Colleges Best Regional Universityies Best Regional Colleges Best Historically Black Colleges Best Business Programs Best Engineering Programs Best Online Degree Programs Chapter Four: Getting In 8 Ways to Stand Out From the Crowd: Experts share their tips on how to impress admissions. Plus: Two student essays that worked A+ Schools for B Students: Some great options for good students What if You Get a Spring Start? An offer of admission for second semester may well be worth taking We Did It! How eight Tampa high school seniors chose their colleges and got accepted Your College Search To-Do List: A smart four-year plan to help you prepare to apply and make the cut Chapter Five: Finding the Money Financial Aid Secrets: 9 key tips on getting a great package Plus: Sports scholarships and how three students are covering their costs Scholarships for Scientists: Check out these awards for STEM students Great Schools, Great Prices The Payback Picture: Schools whose graduates leave with the most (and least) debt Directory and Index of U.S. CollegesInterviews
By Brian Kelly, Editor and Chief Content Officer of U.S. News This college search thing can be a little intimidating, especially if you're going through it for the first time. This is our 32nd go-round at U.S. News, so we feel like we've got some experience worth sharing. Over the years, we've improved our Information and sharpened our focus, with our primary objective being to help students and their parents make one of life's most important - and costliest - decisions. Prospective students and their parents need objective measures that allow them to evaluate and compare schools. The U.S. News rankings are one tool to help them make choices, along with all the other insights and guidance contained in these pages. This sort of assistance is more relevant than ever, with some private colleges now costing around $250,000 for a bachelor's degree. At the same time, many public high school have greatly reduced their college counseling resources, leaving students and parents to educate themselves about the search and admission process. Of course, we have adjusted our ranking methodology over the years to reflect changes in the world of higher education, and we make it clear that we are not doing peer-reviewed social science although we do maintain very high survey and data standards. We have always been open and transparent. We have always said that the rankings are not perfect. The first were based solely on schools' academic reputation among leaders at peer institutions; we later developed a formula in which reputation accounts for 22.5 percent of a school's score and important quantitative measures such as graduation and retention rates, average class size and student-faculty ratios account for the rest. Over time, we have shifted weight from inputs (indicators of the quality of students and resources) to outputs (success in graduating students). We operate under this guiding principle: The methodology is altered only if a change will better help our readers and web audience compare schools as they're deciding where to apply and enroll. It has helped us a great deal to have these principles to focus on as we have faced the inevitable criticisms from academia about our rankings’ growing influence. One main critique remains: that it is impossible to reduce the complexities of a college’s offerings and attributes to a single number. It’s important to keep in mind that our information is a starting point. The next steps in a college search should include detailed research on a smaller list of choices, campus visits and conversations with students, faculty and alumni wherever you can find them. Feedback from academia has helped improve the rankings over time. We meet with our critics, listen to their points of view, debate them on the merits of what we do, and make appropriate changes. U.S. News is keenly aware that the higher education community is also a major audience for our rankings. We understand how seriously academics, college presidents, trustees and governing boards take our data. They study, analyze and use them in various ways, including benchmarking against peers, alumni fundraising, and advertising to attract students. What does all of this mean in today’s global information marketplace? U.S. News has become a respected unbiased source that higher education administrators and policymakers and the college-bound public worldwide turn to for reliable guidance. In fact, the Best Colleges rankings have become a key part of the evolving higher education accountability movement. Universityies are increasingly being held responsible for their policies, how their funds are spent, the level of student engagement, and how much graduates have learned. The U.S. News rankings have become the annual public benchmark to measure the academic performance of the country’s colleges and universities. We know our role has limits. The rankings should only be used as one factor in the college search – we’ve long said that there is no single “best college.” There is only the best college for you or, more likely, a handful of good options, one of which will turn out to be a great fit. Besides the rankings, we can help college-bound high school students and their parents by providing a wealth of information on all aspects of the application process, from getting in to getting financial aid. Our website, usnews.com, features thousands of pages of rankings, research, sortable data, photos, videos and a personalized tool called College Compass. We’ve been doing this for over three decades, so we know the process is not simple. But our experience tells us the hard work is worth it in the end.