Book description
"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...A wonderful exploration of excellence."-Fortune
"Skillfully weaves together some of the best research about effective learning strategies with moving stories about remarkable life-long learners. Some of them had…
- Coming soon!
Why read it?
1 author picked What the Best College Students Do as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
When I heard Ken Bain give a talk on what the best college teachers do, his arguments so impressed me that I changed my syllabus that night before the start of classes the next day.
This book follows a similar model of drawing on interviews to search for best practices. In this case, Bain culls his best practices from interviews with successful college students. From a student’s perspective, reading the book is a bit like speed-dialing peer advice.
Bain devotes an entire chapter to working through failure and spends considerable time on deep versus superficial learning.
From Mark's list on The best books for students about to enter college.
If you love What the Best College Students Do...
December on 5C4
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Want books like What the Best College Students Do?
Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like What the Best College Students Do.
Share your top 3 reads of 2026!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
183
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like What the Best College Students Do, you might also like...
Child of Vanris
At five years old, Kasiel was found with the pointed ends of his ears cut off. Despite that brutal start, he’s lived twelve peaceful years with the man who took him in. Keeping his hair long over his mutilated ears helps him hide the fact that he is Vanrian, a…
Almost Home
Almost Home is a fictional retelling of the last great tragedy of the Civil War.
In late April 1865, almost 2,000 newly freed Union prisoners of war are packed onto the steamer Sultana, in poor repair and with a listed capacity of 376 passengers. Among them are four Indiana soldiers…
