College and University Books

Lauenstein gives more facts than a schoolmarm.

This book compiles information from a wide variety of resources - including excellent experts in the field - and presents it all in one place in an easy to follow, common-sense approach. Key principles for all aspects of life are discussed - financial, emotional, educational, not just how to throw a better curve. For any student athlete, male or female, in any sport, this author provides insights and keys to laying a foundation in school which will be of great benefit no matter what career path is eventually taken. This is an excellent guide which should be available in every school in the nation for every student. I wish this book had been available when I was in high school.

Ray Lauenstein has put together the first comprehensive guide for high school athletes bound for college. Trying to get into the right college is a difficult process, but for the student-athlete there are additional challenges, and Mr. Lauenstein provides an excellent roadmap to navigate the process. If your goal, or your child's goal, is to play sports at the college level, this book is a must read.

This book is great! I gave it to my cousin who's on the high school baseball team, and he loved it. I would definitely recommend this book.

"Baseball, playing outside the lines" is the book every parent needs, to guide their student athlete through the maze of college recruiters. The author has been there, done that, and is able to focus on what is really important, "an education should be the primary focus". This book should be mandatory reading for every student who aspires to playing baseball, or for that matter any sport at the college level.

The alternate title of this book should be: THE ~COMPLETE~ AND ONLY GUIDE TO COLLEGE DEGREES BY MAIL AND INTERNET YOU WILL NEED TO READ. Excellent and up-to-date information regarding courses, tuition, residency requirements. I will FINALLY be able to confidently and comfortably select 'THE' Masters Program that is right for me! Tuition is quite varied and ranges from low to very high...Bears' Guide saved me the time and frustration of looking at schools with astronomically high tuition rates. If you are just beginning to look at Distance Learning programs, have been looking for awhile and are not able to make a decision, or you are just thinking about a DLP, this book is essential.

As I have been contemplating receiving my Bacherlor's degree through a University's Distance Learning Program, I was lost as to where to start. That is, until I found this book. BEARS' GUIDE TO COLLEGE DEGREES BY MAIL & INTERNET. John Bear's book contains listings of tons of colleges, that offer correspondence, independent study, and internet degrees. With information about each school, website addresses, e-mail addresses, etc. that make it easy for the interested party to find out everything they need to know. One thing that I recommend to everyone is to find out the accreditation agencies that support the schools listed before you sign up with them, as not all are regionally accredited. Overall, this was a fantastic book, and a must have for anyone who is interested in pursuing a degree through distance learning.

Erika Sorocco

I have read this book, as well as a number of Bear's titles, and I find it very well researched (and quite readable), considering the fluid nature of the topic. John, daughter, et al are to be commended for a fine project!

John Bear is a nationally recognized authority in school accreditation and has appeared as an expert witness in many trial venues. His list of enemies is quite long, as he has been partly responsible for the closing of a large number of diploma mills and con-game colleges, hence the slanderous reviews. He has also been involved in advising (and occasionally running) non-traditional schools (no crime there) that never claim an accreditation they don't have. Some of these schools have done well, others have not. Some are still around, others are not. (Still - no crime there.)
College is nothing if not market-driven. (Welcome to America; that's how it is done here.)

It should go without saying, but anyone foolish enough to believe everything they read in a Google search is certainly in need of an education!

Books by John & Mariah Bear have literally changed people's lives. This is no less true for this book. Although not quite the behemoth that the larger "Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees by Distance Learning (14th ed.), this book instead provides a tight focus on specific programs for those who either need a little more guidance or for whom smaller/less expensive works better. It still provides the same solid advice that readers have come to trust from the Bears.

College Degrees by Mail and Internet provides all of the information necessary to earn a degree (BA, MA, PhD) through distance learning. Now in its eighth edition, this book has stood the test of time.

If you're looking to change your life (more money, better work, etc), you need to check this book out.

If you want to get your education and not go into slavery with your student loans. Then get this book ASAP, it covers just about everything one needs to know on how to get your degree. I really think the future of higher education is going this way. But if you want to spend a lot of time, money, grief and get a real ration of manure. Then don't read this book!

My order was easy to make and was shipped to me very quickly and in perfect condition. I was very satisfied. Thank You!

Excellent book - easy reading as it chronicles his "miracle in Manhattan." A must reading for every Wildcat fan and great material for young and/or aspiring coaches to see "that it can be done!"

Our experience was great, no problems, book came in timely manner, and the book itself was in great condition and was great reading material.

i'm always in perspective of a successful coach.this book provides great insight into what made bill snyder the positive influence that he was.

What Bill Snyder did at Kansas State is easily, the greatest coaching job, in any sport, at any time, EVER......

Beyond belief is the only way I can even start to describe how BAD Kansas State football was before Snyder took over.

Bill Snyder is maybe the greatest coach of all-time, in any sport. This book should be required reading for ALL business leaders and employees in America. Follow Snyder's steps to success, and apply them to your own life, and you CANNOT fail. Total comittment, goal setting, respect, loyalty, persistence, serious organization, and believing in others, are key components to Snyder's winning formula. The man worked 100 hour weeks, 12 months a year to make this miracle a reality. It's amazing, and it's true......

This book really combines all of the other books out there... the college information guides, the books full of essays by kids who were accepted, the application process timeline books, etc. It combines professional advice, (from teachers, deans of admissions, and college counselors), with advice from people who have been there. The timelines are so helpful too! If anything, this is an incredible organizational tool, as it helps keep you on track with the whole application process. The advice is realistic, dead-on, and concise. You could buy three separate books, like my other friends did, or you could buy this one!

I'm a rising junior at Fairfield University, and I was one of the college students lucky enough to be a collaborator for this book. I was happy to share my experiences to offer a unique perspective of college life that so many guides miss.

For example, I discussed college visits in detail. Most books I read emphasized visits, but few if any described the vast differences between large urban schools and smaller suburban or rural schools. The difference is striking -- more striking than other college guides let on.

Ideally, I would recommend the purchase of this book in addition to The Princeton Review's Best *** Colleges (I believe they're up to 351 by now), which gives the best profiles of individual colleges. Between these two books, you'll have excellent resources for your sophomore, junior and senior years of high school.

I always answer questions from college-bound high school students and their parents. Feel free to email me about anything that you'd like to know about the college application process!

As I enter my junior year of high school I really was at a loss for which book or books to buy to help with my college search. Because of all the great advice in this book - mostly the quotes and essays by students - I really feel so much more confident about tackling the next year or so as I prepare to figure out where to go and what to do. This book is a must, especially if you're still choosing your schools to visit.

This book really works for high school students of almost any age. I bought it for my son and nephew and have worked through it with my son who is a junior. It guides you on the process of first creating a manageable list of colleges and then figuring out how to visit and successfully apply to them. The students' quotes and interviews are incredible helpful, and they gave us information and perspective that neither of us could have known! I highly recommend this book!

When I saw that the authors of this book were all students and recent grads, I was immediately intrigued, but when I saw that they were all from top schools, I was concerned that their advice would be skewed - but it's not. This is the single best book that I have ever read on the subject of finding the right school, making a choice, and then acing your applications. Not only is there excellent advice from dozens of students across the country and from a ton of different colleges, but there's also great bits from deans and admissions officers. I can't think of a more practical tool for a high school student, like me, who's off to college in a year or two.

I am a psychologist who works in a college counseling center, and I wish that I could make this book required reading for the parents of every new student entering college. Main author Richard Kadison--Chief of the Mental Health Service at Harvard University Health Services--does an excellent job of outlining the many issues which college students face and the ways in which these issues are potentially hazardous to every student's mental health. He also provides extremely useful suggestions for what parents can do to help their college student as well as practical tips for the college students themselves. The only sections of the book which I found to be less effective were the chapter and appendix which focused on what colleges should be doing to address the mental health crisis on campus; this information seemed out of place in a book largely intended for parents. However, the remaining two appendices were more relevant, providing a summary of data from the 2002 American College Health Association Survey results as well as an overview of common medications used to treat psychological conditions. Overall, this a well-done, tremendously valuable book; highly recommended.

With my fourth college freshman ensconced in college, I am sorry that I didn't have this book for reference with my other three children. Each student is different with different needs, stress indicators, and mechanisims for coping with college. This book clearly illustrates the number of ways kids react to college...both positive and negative. No one goes to college today without some form of stress either academically, socially, or emotionally. With the help of this book, college students and their parents have a chance at predicting the challenges and setting out a plan that is specific to preventing serious mental health issues from being so overwhelming. This is a great guide for coping and surviving these stressful years and perhaps leading to happiness and success.

My daughter is in her first year of college and experiencing some anxiety. I bought this book on advice from a friend, and found it invaluable. It's easy to read, very informed and informative. Dr. Kadison seems to have a special sensitivity for students. You sense that he really cares and therefore you really want to listen.

This book is very timely, and is of importance. There is a crisis out there, and parents and students need to recognize the problems of being depressed, and that there is something that can and should be done to cope with these disorders. The book is very well written, and easy to read. I feel this book should be read by every parent and every student so they can recognize the signs of depression, and get the help they need. It is a wake-up call, and a real contribtion to mental health. Dr.ERK

by don dallas, ddallas10@yahoo.com


"Parents, your job is not over yet, " declared a flier given me at an orientation session for parents of freshmen. The flier warned me that the first eight weeks on campus will be "stressful". It also urged me to talk to my son about alcohol abuse on campus. Until then that college and all others presented themselves as blissful environments of intellectual and human growth. This was the first time it was suggested that college was stressful.

The stress, it turns out, often is longer and deeper. The most authoritative source on campus stress, College of the Overwhelmed, The Mental Health Crisis on Campus and What to Do About it, was published in October, 2004, by Richard Kadison, M. D., a psychiatrist who is chief of Mental Health Services at Harvard University, and Theresa Foy DeGeronimo, a writer specializing in parenting and education. Contrary to the impression many parents have had that it is time to leave the kids on their own, the book urges parents to be aware, informed, and watchful. Parents are the "best hope" , Dr. Kadison and Ms. DeGeronimo say. They must engage their college sons and daughters in open, adult-adult (yet non-intrusive) communications not just for eight weeks, but for all four or more of the college years. The book even advises parents to have a "crisis plan" ready in case their college-based children need emergency help. "It's ironic that just when you feel you are setting your children free they often need your support and attention more than ever before." One out of every two students becomes so depressed they cannot function at some point during their college career, it says. One out of two become binge drinkers. Student mental health challenges too often go uncared for: students suffer silently as their already-besieged emotional health erodes further. Almost 10 percent of college students consider suicide. "Parents should also help their children choose a college that is not woefully deficient in the area of ...campus mental health. How can parents tell? The book offers checklists of symptoms to look for and questions for parents to ask campus staff and administrators. The book aims to "open a dialogue, get us talking, and suggest ways we all can face these facts and do something..." It is a seminal work, a goldmine of research, insights and advice. "Listen, Listen, Listen," the authors shout to parents. The mental health crisis on campus is the "elephant in the room nobody is talking about."

This thoughtful collection of essays from college administrators is well worth reading. Despite a few clunkily written contributions, it offers real insights into the productizing and marketing of the college experience. In addition, I highy recommend the book, GETTING IN WITHOUT FREAKING OUT -- which, on a very practical, user-friendly level, helps families turn the tables and become wise education consumers.

Mr. Thacker does everyone a service with his well orgainzed and written treatise on the often confusing admission process. Job well done Mr. Thacker, keep up the good work! A must read for anyone who is applying to college or whose kids are applying for college. Do yourself a huge favor and pick up a copy of this book now.

"Nobody likes what's going on in college admissions---not students, not parents, not college presidents and not deans."
- Lee Pelton, President of Willamette University (quoted in College Unranked)

So, what has happened to college admission? Have the ranksters, the testers, the branders, the marketers, the dot.coms, etc. taken over? How did we let it happen? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Well folks, there is hope, and hope has come in the form of a book and an organization.

College Unranked is more than a book; it is a call to action to all who care about education. The book is the first tangible contribution of the Education Conservancy (educationconservancy.org), a non-profit organization that is "committed to helping students, counselors, and colleges overcome commercial interference in college admissions." All proceeds from the book support the work of the Education Conservancy.

College Unranked is a collection of 20 essays all by college presidents, deans, directors, and others in admissions and higher education. The editor, Lloyd Thacker, wrote the introduction, four sets of "Editor's Stories," and the summary and recommendations. The theme of the book, which runs through the essays, is that "Commercialism's intrusion into college admission has transformed a uniquely American educational experience into a problematic American commercial exercise." This is not, however, a nostalgic look at the "good ol' days," it is full of practical wisdom that can affect what we do today.

Thacker and his essayists are doing more than just asking us to think outside the box; they are asking us to throw out the box completely; the box in which colleges are branded and students are packaged, where colleges are ranked and students are measured. A frequent and deserving target in the essays is the U.S.News rankings---"Complicity [with U.S.News] is a disservice to our students and prospective students, and it helps distort various public policy issues affecting higher education (Adams in College Unranked)." It is important to note that while essayists criticize industry icons, they also put responsibility on those who are compliant as well. While some of the stakeholders are more to blame than others, we are all feeding the problem at some level or, at the very least, our complacency is allowing it to continue.

It is difficult to present a book that can be read with equal interest by admissions personnel, secondary school counselors, parents, and students; but College Unranked has done it. While some outside the profession might not care about or grasp some of the "trade talk" in the essays, there is not enough of it to turn off these readers. This is not a "how to get in" book, it's a book about how to do it right. Parents and students are challenged to take responsibility as well and are given the tools and the advice to help them do so.

Those of us who agree that "Something is wrong with college admissions---something wrong enough to care about, to discuss, and to change (Thacker in College Unranked)" now have a flag to rally around.

"Let us all---counselors, students and parents---reclaim the college selection and admission processes a form of education rather than a form of commercialism (Ballinger, p. 175)." Quixotic? Maybe. But also visionary, optimistic, and crucial. Individual lament can become collective action. We won't know if it will work unless we give it a try. Let's give it a try.

If you are the parent of a college-bound high school student, you owe it to yourself to read this collection of essays before you enter the fray of college admissions. Too many rankings. Too much marketing. Too much pressure. Too many tests. There's alot of blame to go around, and this book is a beginning at reforming the schools, students, parents and media who drive the system.

Given the moment we are in, Lloyd Thacker's book is not just good for, but vital to the admissions profession. With wisdom and disarming candor, College Unranked's contributors identify the commercial influence in our profession and describe its manifest forms: from the "ranksters" to the overgrown role of standardized testing in the admissions process; from the marketing of educational products to the reallocation of aid from those who need it to those whose numbers are in demand. Rather than just criticize, however, as so many volumes do, the essayists in College Unranked proffer bountiful and sage advice to virtually everyone involved in the college admissions process: students, parents, colleges, the media, for-profit educational companies and the College Board. Anchored by many years of experience, and fortified by their very unity in this volume, the essayists' insight is at once sound, challenging and reassuring. I join Thacker's endorsers who proclaim on the book's back cover that College Unranked is required reading for anyone who is planning to apply to college. As a college counselor who will soon welcome a class of undoubtedly anxious but hopeful high school juniors and their parents to the process, I am grateful to have this book on my shelf. Echoing College Unranked's already published praise, the advice it gives is more powerful, more heartening and more inspiring than that spun by any guidebook or magazine. For that, Thacker deserves abundant commendation.

The work books provide the extra practice needed to improve preparedness for the SAT. As a supplement for the SAT guide they are very valuable.

HEY i'm a highschool junior and I had a projected 650 for the SAT critical reading from the PSATs but i worked through the practice sections (and there are A LOT of good practices in this book) and got a 740 after 2 weeks working through this book on the actual SAT. so yeah, it's definitely helpful. It also has a lot of good vocabulary practice and tip and several critical reading practice tests.

A very adequate Book!

This book covers various types of questions for the Reading sectoin and the Writing section. It has lots and lots of practice for reading section but could have more for writing (the practice tests on the back can cover that).

It breaks down the reading section into two sections for each type of questions: Sentence completion and Reading. It has all the information you need for each section and tons of practice questions for you to improve your skills.

Writing section is analyzed with many questions that contain the most common types of grammatical errors that are tested on the test. If you learn all those types and practice with the practice tests, you should do fairly well on the test.

For the essay part, it gives bunch of useful tips along with some sample essays with grader's comments.
This book also has the SAT High-frequency word list with 800 words that frequently appear on the SAT.

It doesn't have any useless information so doesn't overprepare you. It has just everything a SAT verbal workbook should have. Therefore, I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Other Books:
Princeton Review's Reading and Writing workbook is very short and inadequate. I wouldn't recommend it.
Kaplan's SAT reading workbook has tons of problems and so that book's pretty good.
Kaplan's SAT Writing workbook isn't as thorough as Barron's but it's good enough to give it a try.
For studying SAT overall I would strongly recommend the Maximum SAT which is the best SAT prep Book I have seen. It is really helpful to study along with the Official SAT Study Guide by collegeboard.

I'm an after-school tutor, and teach general English to Aussie school students. I use all the Barron's SAT workbooks to help improve the students' vocabulary, writing, comprehension and reading. This "Critical Reading Workbook" is great, with plenty of practice in sentence completion, comprehension questions and vocabulary extension. The practice exams at the back of the book are excellent for mastering exam technique, and the explanation section for the answers is very helpful. English is never taught this way in Australia, but it should be. All my students feel they learn more from studying one Barron's workbook than they do from doing a whole year of English lessons at school.

This book is great! It has several practice passages, and the questions are really good. They adhere to the SAT format, and the answer choices are challenging, yet fair. The additional sentence completion exercises and prefix and root sections are really useful in SAT preparation. The only drawback to this book is that it uses many of the same sentence completion questions that you will see in their other test books, namely the Verbal Workbook for the SAT and the GRE test prep book. Other than that, the book is excellent.

I am a college recruiter who specializes in minority students. I have used all of the college guides targeted to minorities and this is the best one. It's comprehensive, clearly written and nicely organized. Five stars.

I have been advising college bound high school students for 14 years, and I am always disappointed by the college guides that do not include enough information on the schools that African American students are interested in. This causes us to have to buy several college guides each year and my school does not have much money. The DayStar guide has all the information African American students need to make a college choice and it covers several hundred schools. Other college guides for African American students only cover historically black colleges, but only 35% of black students go to HBCUs. And the other college guides tend to ignore the HBCUs. This book includes profiles on all types of colleges, including all of the HBCUs (even some I hadn't heard of). It also gives recommendations and advice from experts. This book is way overdue.

This college guide is a one of a kind resource that answers the hard questions of how black students fit into different college atmospheres. It not only deals with white institutions but it also deals with black institutions. It is very important that the mental health of your child be considered when they enter into the new world of college life, and this guide helps answer some of these concerns. College atmosphere can have the impact of success or failure for your child. This book helps parents and students figure out the best fit for a college. It deals with important self esteem and social issues for the individual. It is a useful resource for not only black students, but students of other minorities that face similar obstacles of fitting into the majority world of White America.

This was the most comprehensive College guide I've ever seen. It gave me the ability to rate colleges in the areas that I felt were important to me. Both of my children used the book to make their decisions on which colleges they wanted to visit.

I found out about this book on the radio. The writer was being interviewed. I decided to get it because I will be graduating from high school next June and I want to go to college. My mother didn't go to college so all she could do to help me was to say "just go to college." She couldn't give me any advice on which college or how I should go about figuring out which college was right for me. One of my teachers tried to help, but she just wanted me to go to the college where she went. I heard the author talking about how important it is to pick a college that is right for you even if other people said you should go to another school so I got this book so I could figure out which college was right for me. I could not stop reading it. It showed me how to pick the right school for me. It also had a lot of information on financial aid which I needed. The book has a lot of tips on how to pick the right college and how to get accepted there. I found out about a lot of colleges that I never heard of like Johnson C. Smith University, Davidson University and Elon College. All of these colleges are in North Carolina and I never heard of them. I also liked that the book has all of the black colleges and the non-black colleges.

My family is a Notre Dame Family so I purchased this book for my mom. She loved it! It is also an excellent coffee table book!

This is the fourth book written by Mr. Garner that I have read. The first three were awesome and this book comes close to matching the standard set by them. For the most part this is a very enjoyable book: an easy-reading text detailing legendary moments in Irish football history, accompanied by tons of great pictures. The CDs are a bonus, but there is too much Regis and not enough actual game audio. My only other complaint regards the choice of what was included (or excluded) from this project. Can anyone really believe that the '92 Sugar Bowl (Cheerios Bowl) or the '92 Penn St. game are more defining moments in ND football lore than the '46 Army game (the most famous 0-0 tie in college football history and included 4 Heisman trophy winners in the lineups) or the '87 Michigan State game, featuring Tim Brown's back-to-back punt returns for TD's (I still get chills listening to this) and the fastest score in NCAA history (ND awarded a safety on the opening kick-off), or even the '75 Orange Bowl win over 'Bama in Ara's last game? And as for including "Rudy", well, the movie should have been enough, OK?

Just got the new "ECHOES" book for an early Christmas present while visiting family up north. AWESOME!

We listened to the CD's the whole way home - it was almost like we were really there. Regis was a good pick for the narrator. After your reader from Galesburg listens to the CDs, he'll realize that all of the events not in the book are ALL on the CDs. Now I remember why I'm such a huge Rocket fan.

I've only had time skim through the book, but I can already tell that it will be hard to put down once I get the time to get into it. Garner has hit another home run...or should I say "touchdown"? What a great Christmas present. I almost forgot about what a lousy season the Irish are having this year.

I confess...I'm a woman who loves football. Not to mention an Irish-Catholic. So when a football-fanatic friend of mine told me about Echoes of Notre Dame Football, I had to check it out. I read it, I listened to the CDs, and I have to say--this book has it all! Lots of stats for the serious football fan, tons of incredible photographs spanning over 100 years and compelling stories of football legends that will keep you up late into the night reading "just one more" chapter. And the CDs are great! Going back in time and hearing the broadcasters' excitement as Notre Dame football history unfurled on the field before them actually gave me goosebumps. I will admit that it was hard at first to listen to Regis without picturing him on the set of "Millionaire", which was distracting. More of the original play-by-play broadcasts would have been a plus. But any fan of the noble tradition of college football will enjoy this book.

"Echoes of Notre Dame Football," with its superb collection of Fighting Irish football memorabilia, hits on the high points of a storied football tradition. In additon to having a fine text with plenty of stories on the great Irish football hereoes, including a full chapter on the school's 7 Heisman Trophy winners, along with the memorable games, the book also includes CD disks with audio material involving the likes of ND super fan Regis Philbin and memorable coach Ara Parseghian.

The big games are covered in fascinating detail, making them come live again. The disks include audio portions from those great contests with announcers like Keith Jackson and Van Patrick calling play by play. Among the memorable contests covered are the 1935 classic when the Irish upended Ohio State 18-13 in the closing seconds, the famous 10-10 tie at Michigan State in 1966, and the great comeback in the 1979 Cotton Bowl, when a dehydrated Joe Montana, fortified by chicken soup, returned after the second half had already begun, leading the previously overwhelmed Irish from a 34-7 deficit against Houston to win 35-34 as the clock expired, giving football fans a preview of what to expect from the great quarterback when he joined the Forty-Niners in the NFL.

Having formerly lived in Los Angeles, I was fortunate to see many of Notre Dame's class games at the Coliseum against arch-rival USC. This book has a chapter which covers that famous series, which began in Los Angeles in 1926,in comprehensive and exciting detail.

The book was nice and short, easy to read.

This book is an engaging reference tool. It is more than information on how to pay for college. It is a beginning step to understanding financial literacy and preparing for your financial future.

Chapter One sets the framework for the book and begins expanding the readers world view on money in general. Understanding the basic difference between income and wealth is the first step towards financial literacy.

The insight that is given in terms of how you negotiate and relate for preparing for college and working with financial aid officer can easily be transferred to relating to the bank or any other financial institution.

There is more to this book than is obvious to naked eye.

Dr. LaVeist is using college entrance preparation as an opportunity to introduce his reader to wider concepts on money and basic finances.

I enjoyed this book. The authors are two brothers who weaved a story about getting their sons ready for college into a book about college financial aid, which is usually a very boring topic. Very creative! They managed to entertain AND educate.

I am so thankful to these two brothers. Who have work hard in bring all of this information together. Look forward to here about more in the near future. Again, thank you, my son will benefit from this greally.

This is just the type of book on financial aid that I was looking for. It makes the whole confusing process easy to understand. It's a quick read, intelligent and entertaining. It speaks to black folks. After reading it, I have a better understanding of how the whole thing works.