When it comes to academic excellence, the Ivy Leagues aren't the only schools worth their salt. And nobody knows that better than Edward B. Fiske. Beyond the Ivies introduces an exclusively selected sample from the 2014 Guide to Colleges of ten schools that have redefined what it means to be a top university. From leading engineering institutions to small liberal arts colleges, discover which of these academic elites fits your needs the most! Includes: -Full-color photos -Full-color infographics -Links to school websites -Links to admission email addresses

GET ACCEPTED TO THE COLLEGE THAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU Everyone has their own idea of the perfect college, and the best place for you to spend your college years may not be the most academically prestigious or have the best sports teams. Going well beyond just college rankings, the Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College is the help you need to get started that's been trusted by hundreds of thousands of students, parents, and guidance counselors. SIMPLIFY AND TAKE THE STRESS OUT OF COLLEGE SEARCH --Choose the right type of schools for you, including considering the strongest majors, programs, and courses --Keep everything organized and filter out the marketing hype --Plan and map your college visits, and ask the right questions during campus tours --Attract and even negotiate the best financial aid package This book is a guide not only to who you are, but also to what kinds of schools will be great for you. It starts with an easy but in-depth assessment of your priorities, then takes you step-by-step through the process of applying to the schools that are the best fit for you. MAKE YOUR APPLICATIONS STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD --Earn the test scores colleges want to see --Write authentic admissions essays --Submit an application that shows off your best features --Know how admissions officers rank candidates --Get off the waiting list and get accepted to your top schools GET ADVICE FROM THE EXPERTS Edward B. Fiske served for seventeen years as education editor of the New York Times, during which time he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He writes the #1 bestselling annual Fiske Guide to Colleges to help them. Bruce G. Hammond has devoted much of his time to counseling for college. He served as managing editor of the Fiske Guide to Colleges and is director of college counseling at Dipont Educational Management.

Find the college that's right for you! An A Z of admissions secrets, The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College takes you behind the scenes of the college application process. The expert advice and tips in this book will help you get accepted at the schools of your choice. This clear, accessible guide takes students and their parents step-by-step through the admissions process. Learn: --How to choose the right college --How to get off a waiting list and get accepted --How to write winning essays --How to use the Internet in the application process --How admissions officers really rank applicants --How to interview successfully --How to construct a successful application --How to get the most financial aid --And much more! This is the best resource for helping students get into the schools of their choice. Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as Education Editor of The New York Times, during which time he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He wrote the bestselling annual, The Fiske Guide to Colleges, to help them. Bruce G. Hammond was editor in chief of The Insider's Guide to the Colleges and was managing editor of four editions of The Fiske Guide to Colleges. He is the author of Discounts and Deals at the Nation's 360 Best Colleges and is the school and college expert at Parent Soup, a division of iVillage.com.

An award-winning, step-by-step guide to college admissions that helps students through every aspect of the application process and gives them a proven approach to make their application stand out from the rest. Two expert college admissions consultants—a mother-daughter team—share their step-by-step, proven strategy for creating an application that stands out and gets you IN! College admissions has never been more stressful. Not only is admission ruthlessly competitive, with more and more qualified students applying each year, but the application process has become more confusing than ever before. Most parents and students feel anxious, overwhelmed, and confused by the choices and trade-offs. In! is based on the authors’ 20+ years of experience working privately on boarding, college, and graduate school admissions with students from all over the world. While there is no shortage of college admissions guidebooks on the market, In! offers students and their parents a crucial element that none of the others do: a clear, step-by-step strategy that helps students not only compete academically with other qualified applicants but also develop a defining interest—in incremental, attainable steps—that distinguishes them from their peers and gives them an edge with college admissions officers. This strategy is summed up in a four-word phrase: “be alike but spike.” This means that the applicant must perform on par with other students applying to similar colleges, while also working to stand out from the pack—like a spike on a graph—in one area. (Ironically, it’s often the “well-rounded student,” an ideal many applicants strive for, who gets rejected.) In! shows students how to create that distinction by identifying and "layering" their passion, showcasing their interest in many different ways and circumstances. Enlivened with instructive case studies as well as entertaining New Yorker cartoons, this book carefully guides students through the application process, showing them how to rise to the top of an applicant pool of thousands. And unlike most books about “getting in,” In!’s lessons do not end at college acceptance. Rather than viewing college admissions as a hurdle to be quickly and painlessly cleared, mother-daughter team Luterman and Bloom present it as an opportunity for students to mature, expand their horizons, and discover what makes them tick. Not only does this book get you in, it gives teenagers the tools and confidence they'll need for future success. “Be Alike”—How to optimize your GPA, standardized tests, extracurricular activities, and more. “Spike”—How to develop a unique area of distinction that makes you stand out from your peers. How to create a winning college application—including personal essays, activity chart, letters of recommendation, and more. How to choose the right college for YOU, and how to prepare to attend, and afford, your top-choice school.

Here's something worth learning: Studying doesn't have to be a chore! This fun and accessible resource provides the tools you need to develop better study habits, boost your grades, and position yourself for academic success. Educational consultant Cynthia Clumeck Muchnick uses a wide range of ideas taken from hundreds of students to help you find a unique, effective method suited for your individual learning style. You'll improve transcripts for college applications, ace standardized tests, and become a better student at any level of education. This indispensable guide shows you how to: Get the most out of class time Use the best strategies for note-taking and memorizing Improve writing skills Prepare completely for tests Safely and effectively conduct online research Use Skype, iChat, or social media to form study groups With this guide in your backpack, you'll be able to balance school and activities, avoid pre-test panic, and achieve consistently better results.

"Contains material adapted from The everything guide to study skills, by Cynthia Clumeck Muchnick"--T.p. verso.

For more than a decade, former basketball coach Dan Doyle has been traveling the country, speaking to student-athletes and their parents about their involvement in and dedication to every sport imaginable. As founder and executive director of the Institute of International Sport at the University of Rhode Island, Doyle has attended his fair share of sporting events and has heard countless stories about confrontations taking place on and off the court between coaches, players, parents, and even fans. As the years passed, Doyle gathered everything he’d learned and heard and joined forces with Deborah Doermann Burch, a former schoolteacher and parenting expert, to write The Encyclopedia of Sports Parenting. Together, they surveyed more than 500 successful sports figures to gain additional insight into what parents can do to guide their children through the competitive, sometimes disheartening—though oftentimes rewarding—world of sports. In this book, parents will learn how to express themselves in various challenging situations, including learning that their children have been cut from teams; have become victims of team violence, hazing, or bullying; or are not receiving adequate and assumedly deserved playing time.

With more teenagers applying to college today than ever before, the competition has never been stiffer, and the stress can become unbearable not just for teens, but for the entire family. In Don't Worry, You'll Get In, one of the country's top college admissions counselors Michele Hernandez and leading parenting expert Mimi Doe join forces to bring teens the first college admissions guide of its kind: an easy and accessible book full of 100 specific tips to navigate the admissions process successfully and calmly. For each step, Hernandez explains to teens in simple terms exactly what they need to do, while Mimi Doe empowers them to tackle that step with confidence and in the least stressful way. Covering everything from standardized testing to summer plans to writing a great essay, Don't Worry, You'll Get In is the perfect guide for high schoolers who want to be accepted at the school of their choice without burning out for the sake of getting in.

Our educational establishment - a vast tax-supported empire existing quasi-independently within American society - is morally and intellectually bankrupt, charges distinguished economist and social critic Thomas Sowell. And in this top-to-bottom tour of the mismanaged institutions, cynical leadership, and tendentious programs of American education, Sowell exposes the numerous "deceptions and dogmas" that have concealed or sought to justify the steep and very dangerous decline in our educational standards and practices across the board. Among the more serious ills of American education are the technically sophisticated brainwashing techniques now being applied to children and teenagers in so-called "affective education" programs; the special "peace" and "nuclear" education programs that actively promote "politically correct" attitudes; the "values clarification" and sex education curricula that portray parental and religious authority figures as agents of a repressive and unjust social and political orthodoxy; and the racial "mini-establishments" created on college campuses by minority demagogues and complaisant administrators that enshrine a self-serving ideological double standard, thus betraying the real interests of minority students. Sowell's exhaustively researched investigation draws particular attention to the wide array of textbooks and other instructional materials, promoted with astonishing success by a multi-million dollar industry styling itself a "secular humanist" movement, which fosters these ideas - ideas that are not just anti-American, Sowell maintains, but essentially totalitarian in character. These sinister curricular developments, combined with often cowardly andirresponsible management more concerned about institutional image and ranking than with fiscal integrity or a commitment to educate our youth, will breed disaster unless immediate steps are taken to reform the entire educational system.