I’ve been gathering and surveying many people for close to to years now for a book on college that I am writing.
What topics would you want to see as a parent of a student?
What topics do you want as a student?
“A book on college” is a very broad topic. This could be about the application process, adjusting to college life, study habits, or how to construct a beer bong.
Do you have a more specific focus for this book?
@comfortablycurt Yes, i agree. More so life with and without college. What would you change about college?
I’m sorry, I still don’t have a clear idea of your focus. “Life with and without college”-- what does that mean? Are you going to compare the lifestyles/earning potential/happiness of people who did and did not attend? If so, then it’s a very different book from the type of book I would want to see as a parent on this site, with kids who are already planning to attend college.
Yeah, I would think you’d have a thesis already planned out before you collected a couple years’ worth of data.
Sir @jimmyboy23 i guess i am having a hard time wording my question. I did not ask for thesis. I came to ask if there we any additional topics… ASIDE from the ones that I had that parents/and prospect students would want to see in a college book if they were going to pick one up.
@bjkmom that is exactly what it means… and, if you do not mind me asking… Why would you rule a book like that out? I am just curious because many parents lean towards that end of the scale… and students on the other end.
I’m sorry, but I’m still having a hard time understanding what this book is even going to be about. I don’t know if it’s me or you, but what you’re saying just isn’t making any sense to me.
You haven’t said ANYTHING about what this book is about. Saying that it’s about life with and without college says nothing really meaningful about the topic of the book. Are we comparing lifetime earnings? Lifetime happiness? Difference in careers available to people with or without college?
This is a very broad topic. Without a bit more of a focused idea of what would actually be contained in this book, it’s hard to give any kind of meaningful input on this topic.
I’ve done a lot of freelance writing.
Without a much clearer focus than you’ve presented here, this book is going to be tough to write.
As to a book comparing earning potential/ happiness of college vs no college, I’m fairly comfortable with my own views on that subject for the time being. I don’t need someone to sell me on college. Right now only one of my kids is old enough to have a clear idea of his career path, and college is the route to that path. As the others come along, we’ll decide on the best post-secondary educational path to get there, but I strongly suspect that it will be a traditional college.
Are you doing any international comparisons re cost and quality? I.e. it costs about 1/3 what it does in the UK to go to a first-rate college than it does in the US (or $85 K total v. $230K respectively, for Cambridge v. SLAC).
As an author of several “college books,” I can tell you that writing a book of your thoughts and opinions is easy as pie. Writing a USEFUL book that people will want to read and will shell out money for is much, much harder. It involves a lot of research, contacting schools, and ADDING on top of what people can glean from websites such as CC or college sites.
What’s your motivation for writing this book? Is it a how-to guide, an analysis, what? What would make a consumer consider this worth buying with the wealth of information on the internet freely available?
And yes, your thesis/focus is very unclear. If you can’t succinctly explain it in a sentence, I’m not sure how you’re going to write a book about it.