Books like Where you go is not who you'll be by Frank Bruni

A Yale professor critiques the America‑wide pressure for perfect grades, arguing that higher education should foster critical thinking, creativity, and personal purpose rather than elite, metrics‑driven success.

From a renowned education writer comes a paradigm-shifting examination of the rapidly changing world of college that every parent, student, educator, and investor needs to understand. Over the span of just nine months in 2011 and 2012, the world's most famous universities and high-powered technology entrepreneurs began a race to revolutionize higher education. College courses that had been kept for centuries from all but an elite few were released to millions of students throughout the world -- for free. Exploding college prices and a flagging global economy, combined with the derring-do of a few intrepid innovators, have created a dynamic climate for a total rethinking of an industry that has remained virtually unchanged for a hundred years. In The End of College, Kevin Carey, an education researcher and writer, draws on years of in-depth reporting and cutting-edge research to paint a vivid and surprising portrait of the future of education. Carey explains how two trends -- the skyrocketing cost of college and the revolution in information technology -- are converging in ways that will radically alter the college experience, upend the traditional meritocracy, and emancipate hundreds of millions of people around the world. Insightful, innovative, and accessible, The End of College is a must-read, and an important contribution to the developing conversation about education in this country. - Publisher.

A statistical analysis of survey responses, transcript data, and the Collegiate Learning Assessment to determine how well students learn during their first few years of college. The analysis shows almost half the students surveyed show no significant improvement in skills such as critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing. The analysis goes on to consider possible causes for this educational shortfall.

Parents learn how to let go of over‑protectiveness so children can grow independent and resilient—an accessible guide for guiding school‑aged kids toward self‑reliance.

Elizabeth Wissner‑Gross offers 272 insider secrets to help parents navigate the U.S. college admissions process and give their children a competitive edge.

Every spring thousands of middle-class and lower-income high-school seniors learn that they have been rejected by America's most exclusive colleges. What they may never learn is how many candidates like themselves have been passed over in favor of wealthy white students with lesser credentials--children of alumni, big donors, or celebrities.In this explosive book, the Pulitzer Prize--winning reporter Daniel Golden argues that America, the so-called land of opportunity, is rapidly becoming an aristocracy in which America's richest families receive special access to elite higher education--enabling them to give their children even more of a head start. Based on two years of investigative reporting and hundreds of interviews with students, parents, school administrators, and admissions personnel--some of whom risked their jobs to speak to the author--The Price of Admission exposes the corrupt admissions practices that favor the wealthy, the powerful, and the famous.In The Price of Admission, Golden names names, along with grades and test scores. He reveals how the sons of former vice president Al Gore, one-time Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist leapt ahead of more deserving applicants at Harvard, Brown, and Princeton. He explores favoritism at the Ivy Leagues, Duke, the University of Virginia, and Notre Dame, among other institutions. He reveals that colleges hold Asian American students to a higher standard than whites; comply with Title IX by giving scholarships to rich women in "patrician sports" like horseback riding, squash, and crew; and repay congressmen for favors by admitting their children. He also reveals that Harvard maintains a "Z-list" for well-connected but underqualified students, who are quietly admitted on the condition that they wait a year to enroll.The Price of Admission explodes the myth of an American meritocracy--the belief that no matter what your background, if you are smart and diligent enough, you will have access to the nation's most elite universities. It is must reading not only for parents and students with a personal stake in college admissions, but also for those disturbed by the growing divide between ordinary and privileged Americans.From the Hardcover edition.