Cool Colleges: For the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different

Donald Asher

1 A Must For Anyone Thinking About Attending College
I own this book and I also had the honor of attending a lecture Donald Asher gave in Chicago. This book is for all of students out there who are un-conventional... perfect also for the ones out there who are thinking about going to a non-ivy league school.

Asher sums up some of the coolest colleges in the country that have departments to agriculture to writing... looking beyond the average SAT score or income of the student! He also tells you which colleges don't even care about the SATs and the ones that base more of their criteria on interests and the actual student than crunch numbers. I found this book very helpful and informative in making the decision of which schools to see and which not to. I also found helpful the list in the back of EVERY single acredited college in the U.S.A as well as some in Canada.

All in all this book is a must for all us out there who are looking for something more than snob or name appeal! Seniors BUY this one!

2 Not your average college guide
I knew I had to find a cool college or I'd die of boredom.

Where do you start? Every college guide I saw had the same old stuff. I mean have you ever really considered reading the U.S. News and World Report's College Guide - yawn.

I friend of mine who I really respected turned me on to Cool Colleges by Asher. This is not a guide for average students seeking an average college experience. Asher gives you the real story on the coolest places to get an education.

I'm all set now and am heading off to college of my choice this Fall. If you're not sure where you fit in, get this book. You'll get it.

3 Leaves much to be desired
The premise of this book is good, but it fails miserably in its execution. There is little to no really useful information here. You could probably compile something close to this book simply by culling facts, quotes and descriptions from college web sites. An actual college student's perspective would have been more useful than Asher's. If you purchase this, you will absolutely be taken aback by the sheer volume of useless filler. Everything useful in this book could probably be reduced to 15 or 20 pages. Just take a look at the book's overspaced layout and you'll get the idea that even the author knows its failings. I urge you not to buy this.

4 Ten Years?
I find it hard to believe that it took Donald Asher ten years to research this book. He provided useful information on a handful of colleges. The rest of the book was mostly filler. I did not have any sense of his personal experiences at the institutions he visited. This book was not worth the price.

5 A most unique college guide. Highly recommended.
Read this college guide togther with books such as "Colleges that Change Lives", "Beer and Circus", and "The Distinctive Colleges". You will see that the opinions expressed in this book is quite on the mark. This book should be regarded as a college guide to college guides. Plus, it tells you the representative colleges from each categories such as the scholarly colleges, the "great books" colleges, etc.

U.S. News and World Report's College Guide is pretty silly. It tells you how selective a college is. I.e., how good are the incoming students to each college. Well, we don't want to know how healthy are the patients that are admitted to a hospital. We want to know how much the hospital is going to do for a patient. Likewise, a college guide should tell us how much a college is going to do, educate, mentor and enable a student. Choosing a college is like buying a product. I want to know what that product will do for me, not how well I am.

Buy this book. It is highly recommended!

6 Worth a look for its different perspective
I considered giving it 3 stars, because it's mostly filler, but it was... well, "cool", and it provides a fresh perspective on colleges that might be quite valuable for some kids and their parents.

The author's basic concept is to look beyond the popular reputation of colleges and the "U.S. News" type of surveys. There are lots of essentially unknown places that would be very rewarding for the right kind of student. Some people are hung up on whether their friends have ever heard of the college; this book encourages people to get over that status-oriented thinking.

The college featured in this book that struck as unbelievably cool is Deep Springs, on a huge ranch in the high desert of Eastern California. The students (all 26 of them!) not only run the ranch, they also run the college... interviewing applicants for admission AND for faculty positions. It's only a 2-year school, and the students go on to top-tier schools (Ivies, Berkley, Swarthmore). And it's totally FREE!

But back to the book.... It's very disorganized (clearly intentionally so), and could have been pared down to less than 100 pages of actual content. Buy it if you are obsessive about college research (like me!), but borrow it if you have the opportunity.

7 disappointed
This was read near the end of the search, and had no new info. Many pages were dedicated to list of colleges and addresses--waste of paper. Some of the exerpted articles were quirky and enjoyable to read, but really not helpful. Very disappointed--going to used book store tomorrow.

8 VERY Cool Colleges - Must Read for College-Bound
This book is critical for students and their parents who are looking for a different college experience. Unfortunately, many schools, including the those with Ivy walls around them, are providing cookie-cutter educations. Yes, they have great names, but they are often not as challenging as some lesser known schools who have taken a unique approach to providing the superior educations.

For example, in this book you can learn about an Honors College at IUP, where kids who could never afford to attend an Ivy League school can get an Ivy-caliber education. With an astoundingly low student-teacher ratio, the kids coming out of this this Honors College have been challenged in a way most of us would envy.

Of course, without this book, you might never know that such a unique and rewarding educational experience even existed. Check it out and do something different with your college years.

9 Cool book! Must Read when choosing a college (parents, too!)
Cool Colleges is not only fun to read, it's full of the kind of information I wish I had when I was picking a college!

What's the difference between an Ivy League and the other top tier universities? How about the seven sisters? What schools invite young high school students to go to college instead? What are the top public colleges and universities in the country? Which colleges can you attend for free? What schools have the strongest educational environment (to the point of being called 'short' on social opportunities?)?

This book will answer these questions, and tons more. And best, it's FUN to read! I couldn't imagine a college selection guide being a "can't put it down" book... but this is one!

They aren't kidding in the subtitle: "for the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different." This book has colleges for all of those, and everyone else, too!

Plus lots of college application and life hints: don't take up the credit card companies on their card offers, and get into debt before you even get a job!, do write a good essay, but don't 'borrow' one from the Internet, which majors earn the most (but don't pick just for the money!), and more.

And there are even references to other Cool Books to read while selecting your college, including a good traditional college selection guide that lists more than just the basics, a good book to dispel the 20 greatest myths about college, and other good books to help you along the way.

Read Cool Colleges first!