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Letter from Washington

Pacific Northwest Magazine

How to tell hype from true quality

Seattle Times staff

A movement is growing to help students get beyond the hype and marketing that drive the frenzy to get into the "right" colleges.

It's time, say proponents, to choose schools instead based on what really matters.

More info

U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/
rankings/rankindex_brief.php
College-bound students and their parents flock to newsstands when its best-college issue goes to print each summer. Washington's Gonzaga University and Whitworth College rate on the top 10 master's programs in the West.

PETERSON'S
www.petersons.com/
Rich college profiles, full of descriptions and stats. In addition to the typical college search, Peterson's lets students explore alternative education in niche areas, from info tech to performing arts.

STUDENTS' GUIDE TO COLLEGES, edited by Jordan Goldman and Colleen Buyers (Penguin Books, $18), www.StudentsGuide.com
Bills itself as the only guide entirely written by students, for students. Useful, straight talk about what "America's top 100 schools" are like, academically and socially.

THE CENTER FOR STUDENT SUCCESS
www.centerforstudentsuccess.org
Information and assistance for admissions, financial aid, scholarship-search. You can visit its Seattle center and use its free tools and resources to explore career interests and options. 190 Queen Anne Ave. N., 800-562-3001.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR EDUCATION STATISTICS
www.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool
Well worth a visit. Assets include the ability to look up colleges by state. For example, you can ask what public colleges teach architecture in Washington (Answer: UW, Washington State and Eastern).

MY COLLEGE GUIDE
www.mycollegeguide.org
Flashy, yet functional. You can pose your tough questions and The Admissions Guru will answer.

"COLLEGE HANDBOOK 2005" by the College Board, $27.95. Comprehensive list of more than 3,600 two- and four-year colleges in the U.S. School counselors view this hefty tome as a must-have, so you'll probably find it in your school counseling office.

"THE BEST 357 COLLEGES," by The Princeton Review (Random House, $21.95), www.princetonreview.com/college/default.asp. Each college gets a two-page spread. Rankings cover 60 categories from academics and political leaning to cafeteria food and dormitories, with insights from students themselves.

"THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO THE COLLEGES," by Yale Daily News Staff (St. Martin's, $18.99). The scoop on everything from drug use to dorm food at more than 320 schools, from the students who live there.

"THE FISKE GUIDE TO GETTING INTO THE RIGHT COLLEGE," by Edward Fiske with Robert Logue (Times Books, $22.95). All-in-one guide. Includes list of each school's strongest departments and majors; rates schools on a 1-to-5 scale for academics, social life and quality life.

2006 KAPLAN /NEWSWEEK "AMERICA'S HOTTEST COLLEGES," $9.95. A magazine that might as well be a book, this 273-page guide blends how-to advice, a list of "25 Hottest Schools," and newsy pieces on getting into your dream school, early decisions, deferred admissions and more.

"COLLEGES FOR STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES OR ADD," (formerly known as "Peterson's Colleges With Programs for Students With Learning Disabilities Or Attention Deficit Disorders") by Charles T. Magrum and Stephen S. Strichart (Peterson's Guides, $29.95). Compare 750 two- and four-year colleges. Included: schools with taped textbooks, human note-takers, remediation classes, and tutoring or counseling. Washington State University and Western Washington University make the list.

NATIONAL COLLEGIATE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION, www2.ncaa.org
Info here could pack a football stadium: recruiting calendars, game schedules, school rankings, NCAA scholarship details and athletic contacts.

"STUDY AWAY: THE UNAUTHORIZED GUIDE TO STUDY ABROAD" by Mariah Balaban and Jennifer Shields, (Anchor Books, $13.95). Profiles 68 English-language schools in more than 30 countries.

Is it the number of Nobel-Prize-winning faculty, or how tough it is to be admitted, or a school's "best-college" rankings?

Or maybe just the luster of its brand name?

Try this instead: The mark of an effective college is that its students are deeply engaged in their learning.

How to measure that? The National Survey of Student Engagement, a major, leading-edge project to improve undergraduate education, focuses on five key features it suggests parents and students consider. Research shows effective schools share the following qualities:

Challenging academics: The level of intellectual rigor is high enough that students stretch to perform at levels they didn't believe they could achieve; faculty set student-performance standards accordingly.

Active and collaborative learning: Students apply academic lessons to the real world — from service learning to community-based and student-team projects.

Student-faculty interaction: Contact is frequent and may include chances to work with a professor on a research project or serve with faculty on a college committee.

Enriching out-of-class activities: Opportunities outside the classroom complement the academic program, including internships, exposure of students to different cultures and perspectives and using technology to collaborate with peers.

A supportive campus environment: Students can find help for academic issues and social concerns, for example, with study-skill labs available for reading and writing, ready access to academic advisers and having cultural or ethnic centers on campus. Administrative offices are flexible and responsive, not bureaucratic quagmires.

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