posted on November 05, 2012 11:45
Book by John B. Bader
Review by: Erin Churchill
Pre-Pharmacy Academic Advisor
College of Arts and Science Professional Advising Services
University of New England
Being highly successful is the main goal for any college student, especially those who have recently been admitted or those who are beginning their first semester and maybe first generation college students. John B. Bader focuses on specific habits that a student should possess in order to be successful in college in his book Dean’s List: 11 Habits of Highly Successful College Students.
This book seeks to give the student the all important answers to the “Now what?” question after they have been admitted into college. Bader states within an introduction to students facing their freshman year that “They [incoming freshmen] know college is important. (Why go to all that trouble and expense if it weren’t?) But it’s not quite clear what college will be like or how to succeed, especially if they are the first in their family to go to college” (p. 1). This sums up the basis of this book, which is a reference to those students to help them in finding their true potential and success in college and to learn the differences it has from high school.
This book is an excellent resource not only to students, but parents and academic advisors to aid them in a multitude of situations that may arise during this first year as a college student. Advisors see students not only when they are not successful academically, but when they have issues talking with their parents, finding out that their major and/or career choice is not for them, or when they are looking for answers on how to get into a professional or graduate school. Each of the chapters includes essays from deans of prominent colleges in the United States who give an even greater insight on these areas in which the new college student struggles.
Dean’s List: 11 Habits of Highly Successful College Students should be recommended to any person who is facing college for the first time or is working with first-year college students. This book offers useful tools in decision making that enable students to have successful college career. Bader organizes the chapters of his book extremely well in order to find and explore the answers to all the questions an incoming student may have while including the all important advice from college deans.
Dean’s List: 11 Habits of Highly Successful College Students. (2011). Book by John B. Bader. Review by Erin Churchill Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 288 pp., $19.95, ISBN # 978-1-4214-0081-5.