The Best 345 Colleges, 2003 Edition

Rating:
Summary: Useful, But Not Entirely Accurate
Review: As high school students look for a college to attend, they ought to review "The Best 345 Colleges." However, there are some inadequacies.

Stars are used to score a school's quality in various areas, like what the campus is like, admissions, financial aid. The star system is further detailed by a point system, from 1-100.

Because it was based on surveys, there are holes depending on the student interviewed. A more academic-focused student found at Wheaton College in Illinois will have a different look on what's important than a more party-inclined student at the University of Florida. It did not seem the researchers appreciated the subtleties defining the schools. It seems, for example, a school's Christian viewpoint skewed researcher's into a negative or less positive score, despite the otherwise top marks for SAT scores and so forth.

As a first look into the schools which you are interested in, this is useful, but the biases and mistakes in surveying hold back this from being a four-star book.

Instead, see the Peterson guide along the same lines.

Anthony Trendl

Rating:
Summary: This book is crucial for any prospective college student.
Review: I bought this book in the end of my junior year of high school. With this book I was able to learn about all the colleges that my high school counselor or anybody else recommended, and I could get a comprehensive view of the school. With this book, I could learn about things beyond academia.

When it came to my finaly decision to apply to schools, there were some schools that I found by just browsing through the book that I applied to. Which was helpful, because I could look further than the schools my counselor liked sending students to. Four out of the eight schools I applied to, came from browsing the book.

Note: I made further inquiries about prospective schools, but this book was where I discovered the the prospective schools.

Rating:
Summary: Useful college- and student-derived information
Review: Our high school senior delegated research into prospective colleges to me, a major act of trust on her part. Or perhaps she assumes that my 30-year-old college experiences offer greater insights into the mysterious, frightening future she is set to enter. (Like I said, trust...) In any case, this book offers both the college's party line plus reports from opinionated students who have chosen to submit input. Self-selected reports from a small number of college students cannot truly represent the entire student body's opinions, just as admissions personnel will never offer negative views of their college, so keep this in mind while reading any of these college review books. Still, this is one of the better books of this genre out there as long as you can tolerate failing to find many excellent colleges featured. To keep it all in perspective, they say a student's success is based less on their choice of college, and more on what they do while there. Let's just pray our prospective college students make the most of their opportunities!

Rating:
Summary: Proceed with a wary eye
Review: The Princeton Review tries hard to provide the dry statistics, as well as some insights into the personalities of the schools. And this is valuable. But if this book is anything like their website, I'd be concerned about inaccuracies. Maybe it was the Princeton Review folks, or maybe it was schools' failures to provide accurate information, but there were very good schools that I had initially ruled out because The Princeton Review indicated they didn't offer the major I was looking for, I subsequently found out from other sources (including the schools themselves) that they did indeed offer that major. To me, this is a huge failing - decisions are being made on what one thinks is accurate info, when it is actually suspect. As a result, I wasted time, instead of saved time.

Rating:
Summary: What You Need To Know
Review: This book is very good for info, stats, etc on colleges. But what I never really thought about, and it's needed before making this huge decision, is what college education is really all about in the USA. This is huge. You have to know this. I searched, and was told that the best book to read for that is Norman Thomas Remick's "West Point: Character Leadership Education...". Itwas great. Then I went on with my search for a college in "The Best 345 Colleges" by Robert Franek, armed with greater understanding of what it's all about. I recommend everyone doing the same.