What the Best College Students Do - Rilegato

"The experiences of successful students are certainly burnished by exposure to the length and breadth of a liberal curriculum, but they are spurred by awe and fascination. The best students seek the meaning behind the text, its implications and applications, and how those implications interact with what they have already learned. To think in so rich and robust a way as Bain describes--"trying to answer questions or solve problems that they regard as important, intriguing, or just beautiful'--is an aspiration of the first order...A soundly encouraging guide for college students to think deeply and for as long as it takes."-- Kirkus Reviews, 15th June 2012

" Some very good books are worth reading for a few splendid pages alone. Ken Bain's What the Best College Students Do is one such book. His interview with the TV satirist Stephen Colbert is revealing both for its insight into Colbert and for its ideas on how higher education ought to work... What the Best College Students Do combines interviews with a review of academic research on university learning. The book builds on Bain's 2004 bestseller, What the Best College Teachers Do. To some extent, both books state what we already know-that straight A's are nice, but hardly guarantee a happy or productive life. Instead, it takes a personal sense of purpose. The 'best' students are curious risk-takers who make connections across disciplines. By following those instincts-rather than simply chasing 'success'-the best students achieved it. Bain's new book is a wonderful exploration of excellence." --David A. Kaplan, Fortune online, 8th July 2012

Ken Bain is Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of the District of Columbia.