To Aim A Little Higher is a wonderful book with an inspirational message that will send your heart soaring! John Brock writes in an easy going manner that is enjoyable to read. As you read this book you will discover secrets that will have tremendous uplifting meaning in your life. When you finish reading To Aim A Little Higher you will be wondering if the story is true or a work of fiction. If you are looking for an enjoyable story with an uplifting inspirational message or if you simply are looking for something fun to read, then To Aim A Little Higher is for you!

A great book, providing a very human view of the development of higher education. Andrew Rice is the perfect vehicle to explore Oxford, Tulane, and several experimental curricular attempts at collegiate education. Reynolds is a gifted writer. Her research is deep, her charactors compelling.

Your College Experience: Strategies for Success 4th ed by John N. Gardner and A. Jerome Jewler.
This book is excellent for a first semester college introduction to academic life. It deals with the issues students need to address for academic success such as critical thinking, time management, active learning, learning styles, reading, writing, listening and speaking, test taking, library use, computer use, academic resources, advisors, relationships, diversity, stress management, finances, alcohol, drugs, and sex. The book has six parts: 1. Strategies for success, 2. Plan ahead, 3. Take charge of learning, 4. Hone your skills, 5. Get connected, and 6. Know yourself. There are one to four chapters in each part totaling fourteen chapters, about one per week for a semester. There are exercises and guiding questions for a personal journal at the end of each chapter. A highlight is the interactivity provided by the CD-ROM packaged with each textbook. Each chapter has a self-assessment, has exercises from the book formatted to use on the computer and refers to textbook pages, has additional exercises not in the textbook, quizzes, crossword puzzles, and journal assignments that can be done on the computer. The CD-ROM links to many Internet sites for additional information and self-assessments. The book comes with a free four month subscription to InfoTrac, an online library. This book is good for the visual learner, the CD-ROM is particularly good for the kinesthetic learner, and the discussion exercises are good for the auditory learner. There are also supportive materials for faculty who adopt the book, and the CD-ROM is available on Blackboard and WebCT as online course management tools. .

First a bit of background - I have been involved in distance education for over 25 years and have been a university and community college faculty member for over 15 years. I have traditional bachelors and masters degrees (two of them in fact). My work in distance education includes the design, production, scheduling and delivery of "traditional" video telecourses as well as Web-based courses.

In my work with students over the past decade and a half, I have advised a significant number to explore completetion or advancement of their academic programs through non-traditional or distance programs.

In all that time, I have used Dr. Bear's books as my primary referrence about distance education. I believe I started with the second edition of his "Bear's Guide" and have acquired every update since. For a number of years, his was the only publication which presented a comprehensive collection of information about programs and schools.

I have always received positive feedback form my students who relied on the information Dr. Bear presented - their expereinces with specific schools most often mirrored the reviews in the "Guide".

Throughout the years and the progression of new additions I have noted a marked shift in the method of presentation, particularly regarding the level of Dr. Bear's crusaiding against those institutions that did not measure-up to his standards. The largest number of those outfits would be called degree mills, but he did assail a fair number of "real" schools for being non-responsive, pompus or disorganized.

I must confess I miss that level of "edge" in his last couple of editions. This is unfortuante, I beleive, given the growth of educaitonal coursework via the Internet and the fact that the majority of two and four-year schools in the U.S are offering some form of distance learing (with that number growing every day.

Nonetheless, I still find "Bear's Guide" to be the best single resource for distance and non-traditional post-secondary education.

I had to work to eat but I always wanted to go back to school. John Bear showed me it can be done (both eating and school I mean). I just graduated Magna Cum Laude with a communications degree. Now I'm off to get a Masters. If I can do it so can anyone.Thanks John.

My use of this book was to check on the credentials of someone else. This book is an excellent source for a listing and a description of schools you will want to avoid for yourself. It clearly lists the known diploma mills. It also gives you good information on unaccredited schools as well as accredited schools. There is a lot of information on a lot of schools around the whole world.

Dr. Bear does an excellent job describing how accreditation works and what to watch out for when the school you're interested in says it is accredited or admits it is not accredited.

So, if you're checking on someone elses creditentials or you want to make sure that your diploma will be worth the time and money you invest, make sure you get this book!

Much of the data, SAT scores and other info, was at least a year or two out-of-date. The preface stated the SAT scores would all be on the newly recentered scale, but were not.The narratives are often not changed much, if any, from year-to-year, so how up-to-date are they?The weighting system for evaluation favors Princeton U. strengths, so Princeton U. came out as best overall undergraduate experience (no surprise for Princeton grad editors!!) And, the book devotes as much space to schools of 500 as it does to schools of 50,000! There is a huge amount of variation between the academic experience of a P.E. major and a nuclear physics major at these big schools, and I'm sure one number rating for academic quality cannot do justice to both. But the book gives a good overall flavor, and I hope (presume) the numbers are overall reasonably accurate. If they gave one overall rating and publicized it, this would be more cited, I believe, than the U.S NEWS survey.

Of the 6 guides we used in our college search, we found this to be the most complete and useful with unbiased information about academics, quality of life and admissions. The Fiske Guide to Colleges was probably the second most informative.

I thought that this book was perfect!! I've seen others of its kind and there is no comparison because it offers how the students view the school

This is a great book from the best medical school on earth, in my humble opinion.

this book is greatness, an epic tale of THE best medical school in the world. Hopkins is so amazing, I never knew there was one place where so much medical progress was being made. Hopkins is, bar none, the greatest place to train as a doctor in the world.

This book focuses on the the story that led the best medical school in the united states (arguably, in the world), to gradually change its curriculum to serve an ever changing world from a teacher-oriented method to a completely student-oriented method. A must to read for any administrator of a medical school. Makes me wish I had gone to Medical School at Johns Hopkins...

I found "North Campus Days" to be an interesting in-depth look at one man's coming of age amid the hustle and bustle of a large university. The author starts at the beginning by expressing his fears of the huge institution as he approaches it alone on the first day and, from there, brings you into his struggle to find where he belongs. He describes the loneliness, acceptance, friendships, loves, wins, losses, challenges and changes that lead him, after four years, to graduation. He tells you how, through his determination, he not only succeeds scholastically, but also personally by accumulating a diverse yet close-knit group of friends. His main objective, however, continues to elude him...

This is a great book for kids getting ready to face four years (or more!) of college. It's filled with emotion, ups and downs, happy times and frustrating times. I recommend it for parents getting ready to send their child off to college as well. Author does a fantastic job of describing characters--I felt like they were people I actually met.

A very sensitive read into the author's personal experiences while attending UCLA. The passage of adolescence to manhood is documented through the author's aspirations and expectations of university life. I enjoyed the focus on the development of friendships as well as the search for meaningful love. Although this takes place in a college setting, the characters and themes are universal. The book was well written and flowed beautifully. I look forward to a sequel!

Easy to read this book has great tips on how to study. Many things you already know in a vague sort of way but the tone is inoffensive, almost fun to read. A great aid for a serious student.

As a person who has almost an entire shelf full of college "study" books, and who has read at least a dozen more... I can honestly say that this book is THE BEST one out there.
I am an engineering student, who fortunately (or not) never had to study before to get A's....now at U of Mich. Ann Arbor - can't seem to quite get away that easy. I was clueless as to how to study and other books didn't seem to help.

Other how to study books may 'suggest' to you ways to organize your time/study habits or 'suggest' ways to plan. This book shows you in detail how to do it. Very good for visual learners like me! It helps you effectively manage your time while juggling different types of classes (mostly reading classes - literature, mostly homework classes -science, math, engineering, mostly lecture classes - sociology, psych). The best section for me was Chapter 10 : Sample Study Schedule and a Guide to Managing Your Time. Here he breaks down EXACTLY how to organize all the different types of classes/time needed/study methods and brings together all the lessons he was teaching beforehand.

Key areas include his "three day back, one day ahead" method = Priceless; tips for part time students, grade disputes with instructors, and exactly how to tailor your studying to specific types of classes. A section on what to do seven days before the test, student stress... also incldues an excellent section on note taking with visual examples of before and after using his techniques during the different types of classes that college students take.

Best of all none of this is lengthly - all very concise and straight to the point without a lot of the garbage anecdotes and BS situations that the other books used that don't work in the real college world but that usualy fill up other books. His book can show you how to finish studying by 7 pm every day. How about that?

Unlike other books I've read, his book talks about classes from a real college students perspective. Excellent Job!!

If you are motivated and ready to work hard then this wonderful book will tell you the method by which you can shoot towards your goals. The methods really work. However Stowers' ways are not for people looking for shortcuts. The methods require complete dedication to hard work, planning and consistency.

Clearly the views set out in this book are of high sophistication towards intellectuals. How fitting. John Michael breaks down intellectuals, and there specific roles, and duties in the American Dichotomy. Higher level readers will find great debate in the views set out in the book. A true account and testimony of intellectuals abilities, responsibilities, and roles in westernized society.

Anyone interested in broadening his or her horizons in terms of understanding just how we are influenced by intellectuals in contemporary American society will find this fascinating, provocative, and well-written new book by academic John Michael a welcome introduction to the subject of the roles of intellectuals in influencing and informing public understanding and participation in the political process. The simple fact that the author has succeeded in getting this thoughtful probe into the nature of the intellectual pursuits published speaks volumes about the value of the book itself, for he has evidently succeeded in turning what could have been an offbeat and low-pulsed subject into a immensely interesting and entertaining look at a number of our contemporary intellectuals, at the same time also exploring individual authors' styles and substance and explaining how each of the elements in their interesting intellectual products affects us as citizens operating in a democracy.

Michael argues quite persuasively that without an active, informed, and energetic effort on the part of a well-placed caste of intellectuals on both sides of the political aisle, effective and meaningful participation in a democratic state (or in a constitutional republic like ours) is problematic, if not impossible. Certainly, with the rise of the electronic media, many thoughtful scholars are questioning whether accurate and meaningful information is being imparted and disseminated to the citizenry at large. In this sense the author's concern is well placed, and he approaches the issue of the role of intellectual conversations among the citizenry with verve and energy. He also seems quite willing to jump into the current "culture wars' fray by examining the degree to which intellectual discussion addresses the real needs of the populace and the degree to which individual intellectuals and celebrities like Rush Limbaugh (to call this clown an intellectual seems a contradiction in terms) seem engaged in mere polemics as apologists of a particular political persuasion.

This is a serious book, and yet is also one that is fun to read, with many interesting asides and anecdotes to keep the reader's interests and spirits up as one trudges through the otherwise depressing minefields and foxholes of the various battles now conducted on the contemporary intellectual landscape. Although Michael obviously has a point of view and a particular perspective he is not shy about sharing, he is also seemingly fair-minded and objective in citing the various aspects of individual intellectual's strengths and weaknesses. This is an interesting, entertaining, and well-written book I heartily recommend.

Like most collections of essays, the quality of this one is mixed, but if you can stomach the sometimes trite personal narratives ("I came from a trailer park and now I teach at a community college full of students from trailer parks!"), you'll ultimately enjoy the insights that some of the book's 21 contributors have to offer. However, the collection is aimed at a specialized audience, particularly college English teachers, so if you haven't spent a significant portion of your life wondering why, with all your education, you have ended up where you are, this book won't make much sense.

The most interesting essays address the problem of social class within academia itself. For example, Olivia Frey writes, "The regard (disregard) for composition and composition teachers has interesting parallels with the daily struggles of workers and laborers, and their status within society at large." Although the sentiment here is nothing incredibly new, the fact that it is stated in print is in itself significant and might disturb many composition instructors (and their administrators) who are in deep denial about where they are and what they do.

At times the collection turns on itself, however, with some contributors appearing to advocate relaxed standards and "dumbing down" theories based solely on the social class of students. As a whole, the book would be more effective if it focused entirely on the problem of social class within the teaching profession, but it's still a great read.

In this anthology college teachers from all walks of life tell us how who they are, where they're from, affects their pedagogy. It's a terrific, ecclectic collection that should be required reading for teaching assistants beginning their careers. May it liberate and enlighten them, and any others who can come to personal history, to class, with an open mind.