The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2005 : 31st Edition

Rating:
Summary: Forget any standard college books...
Review: ...because this one has all of the information they offer and much more.

Written by the staff of the Yale Daily News, this is the ultimate guide to colleges nationwide from a student's prospective. It covers all the basic information- tuition and costs, test scores, percentages of regarding minorities and women, etc. However, it also offers information difficult to find on official university websites, such as the quality of cafeteria food, popular things to do in the cities, the influence of Greeks, how dorm rooms are selected (lottery or senior status?), political tendencies, popular professors and their habits (numerous professors are popular for throwing chalk at students), and school traditions.

For instance, did you know that on Commencement Day, Carleton College students blow bubbles from the balcony down at their professors? That at Rice University students have a day where they run naked (modesty provided by shaving cream) through their campus? That Reed College students are forbidden to tell non-students and faculty about their mysterious Pict ritual?

These tidbits and many more are to be found in the best college guide I have ever read. As a prospective college student, this guide has been infinitely helpful to me in narrowing down my choices. The only fault I could see with this book would only bother state-university bound students, for with the exception of the main state university (i.e. University of Wisconsin, University of Virginia, etc.), other state universities suffer a lack of representation, with the exception of the New York City College system and the California state schools. However, purchasers of this book are not likely to be state bound after reading the abundance of choices our great country offers.

So use this phenomonal guide to explore universities and programs throughout the United States. Good hunting, everyone, and God Bless America.

Rating:
Summary: Not a very good book
Review: I bought this book, and I looked at what the book said about my college (Pitzer) and everything you could pick off the website they got right. But as one has said before me, they get A LOT wrong. For example they say the school has two places students can eat, mentioning a place called "The Gold Mine," they mention this place a number of times, yet it does not exist. They talk about "nick names" that everyone calls the dorm buildings, nicknames that I have NEVER heard. Another example is the big fair that Pitzer has each year, there is a very strange story behind how the fair started. If they asked anyone on campus about the fair, they would could tell them the story. Yet the book says its a fair celebrating the coming of spring. Why would a college located in southern CA, with warm weather year round have a fair celebrating the coming of warm weather in the rest of the country? Yale kids are smarter then that? Arn't they? I gave a three star rating because general information is put in the same place. But there are a lot better books out there. So unless your just skimming the book while your in a book store, steer clear of this one.

Rating:
Summary: Party on...or study on, depending...
Review: So, according to this guide every school must be either...

a) A "party school" where the students are inebriated a greater percentage of the time than they spend in class. It turns out that the tuition and board at these schools are merely cover charges for the four years of parties and jam-band concerts. Chances are you'll miss the majority of your classes due to hangovers, so don't even bother with the academics.

or

b) A "nerd school" where the social life is defined by the number of people in your study group. Forget parties and fun at these schools kids, it's off to the library...Did we mention the lackluster "male to female ratio"...funny, considering they mention that for an all-male school...

Use this in conjuction with another guide such as Barrons or Fiske, and take everything with a grain of salt.

Rating:
Summary: Information in here suspect at best
Review: The information in this book cannot be trusted to be accurate. For example, the write-up on Bryn Mawr claims that students there call themselves "Bryn Mawrians," when in fact Bryn Mawr students refer to themselves as "Mawrtyrs." Such evidence of sloppy research makes me wonder from where the writers get their information - and what else is just plain wrong.

As an independent educational consultant, I advise my students to do their own research into a college - and to avoid sources such as this one.

Rating:
Summary: Honest and opinionated
Review: This book is not the run-of-the-mill college info book. More than any other book it helps one learn the *personality* of a school. One can learn more than just the raw statistics (SAT scores, % minority, etc), and can read what type of students attend the school, the kind of social life one can expect, what students think about the school, what kind of things there are to do on weekends, and all sorts of details that are of utmost importance to the college experience but are left out of most school guides. This book is uncompromisingly honest and straightforward about the pluses and most importantly the minuses of each school. If you get just one college book, I wholeheartedly reccomend this one.

Rating:
Summary: What You Should Know Before Choosing A College
Review: This is a great reference book. Statistcs. Commentaries. Lots of information. But, not within the scope of a reference book is knowledge and understanding on what the real purpose of higher education is. It's what I, and I expect, most Americans never realized. A book recommended to me, and I am now recommending to everyone, that deals with that is "West Point: Character Leadership Education...." by Norman Thomas Remick. If you don't want to make a decision that is a lifetime mistake as you get into the nitty-gritty of specific colleges in "The Insider's Guide To The Colleges, 2003", you need to get a hold of this book.