Best 311 Colleges, 1999 Edition (Annual)

Rating:
Summary: An excellent reference book for the college-bound
Review: Being an 11th grader in high school and experiencing the college process firsthand, I have purchased various college guides in the past few months and have decided to enlighten other students and parents of my opinions regarding these books.

For students wanting to narrow down the list of over 2,200 four-year colleges, I strongly recommend The Princeton Review's "The Best 331 Colleges." This book provides invaluable information concerning some of the best institutions in the nation, covering crucial topics such as academics, student life, the student body, admissions, and financial aid. What I loved about this book in particular was its sincere and straightforward look at how the students feel about their college, since much of the information is based on actual responses from attending students. Contrary to other types of college guides, The Princeton Review gives you the essential statistics and information (median SAT scores, average GPA, percentage of applicants accepted, number of undergrads, etc.), and goes above and beyond that by including student reactions and descriptions which make you feel as if you were actually there. Of course, nothing can substitute an actual visit to a college, but the Princeton Review book is one of the best ways to start your college search and decide which universities appeal to you.

Another book that I purchased was the enormous 3,257 page "Peterson's 4 Year Colleges" guide. This book is adequate for finding copious amounts of statistics regarding every 4- year college in the United States, as well as a few international universities. The introduction is fairly informative, and the second half of the book provides brief 2-page descriptions of various colleges listed in the beginning of the book. This guide is ok for people who want to consider ALL their options, but it is probably not necessary at all if you at least have a vague idea of where you want to go and what you would like to do.

"The Fiske Guide to Colleges" is truly exceptional. Although it may not include every college out there, it does have over 300 of the best ones available. Similar to the Princeton Review's guide, Fiske gives actual ratings to academics, social life, and quality of life, but on a 5-star scale. What is helpful about this is that it gives the reader a modified perspective of a college which may have been otherwise thought of differently. For example, a college which has a five-star rating for academics may seem great to parents and students at first, but then you might realize that the quality of life and social rating might be horrible and students hate living there. This is not the case all the time, but it is a helpful warning that elucidates what exactly the life at a college may be like. Another great thing about Fiske's guide is that his college summaries really bolster his rankings, and he covers everything from the effectiveness of classroom academics to the abundance of frat parties.

The last guide I will comment on is the "Insider's Guide to the Colleges," which was written by actual college students. This book is pretty good and gives insight to quality of academics, student body, and social life, but mainly focuses on the latter. It is fun to read and has lots of humorous quotes from students at the individual colleges. The introduction was pretty good as well, and contains important information for people not too familiar with college applications or terminology.

Overall, I believe if you want to buy only one or two books, I would opt for either The Princeton Review's "The Best 331 Colleges" or the "Fiske Guide," primarily because of the books' forthright approach to assessing the colleges based on various factors, not just academics. And to all students applying to college this coming fall, I wish you all the best of luck.

Rating:
Summary: Horribly inaccurate, entirely subjective, abuse of quotes
Review: I have never seen such a horrible book produced under the Princton Review name. Judging from the surveys they took of a few of the schools I am acquainted with they may have gone to a drunken frat party at the schools they personally disliked to get quotes for their book. Others that they did like they just had their editors write up a rave review. I am disappointed to say the least and would give the book negative stars if possibly for it's inaccuracy and lack of depth. A particular reviews that are inaccurate are for Virginia Tech and the university of TN. According to the this book the two universities have comparable standards and reputation. To that I say hogwash. Also, under the Virginia Tech review the school is made out to be a campus of drunks and drug addicts who have nothing to do but party. The reputation of the university and the workload at it say the polar opposite. I think for this review they must have used quotes from persons who were either kicked out or dropped out of the school. They also managed to get the whiniest bunch survey-ees. Could someone please name three colleges that don't have a parking problem? Without thinking more than 1 minute. I just pray that parents of high school Seniors are not using this book as a reference on where to send their children to school. If you really want to know the real deal about a school don't trust Mr. Custard to give you accurate representation. If you really want to know about a school, visit it, ask questions, do your own research. I think that the book was constructed using the Q&D principle. Quick and Dirty. Exactly the research methods used in the creation of this book.

Bottom line: If you are researching prospective schools for your future, DON'T RELY/READ/LOOK AT THE COVER/BE WITHIN 10 FEET OF THIS TRASH.

Rating:
Summary: Horribly inaccurate, entirely subjective, abuse of quotes
Review: I have never seen such a horrible book produced under the Princton Review name. Judging from the surveys they took of a few of the schools I am acquainted with they may have gone to a drunken frat party at the schools they personally disliked to get quotes for their book. Others that they did like they just had their editors write up a rave review. I am disappointed to say the least and would give the book negative stars if possibly for it's inaccuracy and lack of depth. A particular reviews that are inaccurate are for Virginia Tech and the university of TN. According to the this book the two universities have comparable standards and reputation. To that I say hogwash. Also, under the Virginia Tech review the school is made out to be a campus of drunks and drug addicts who have nothing to do but party. The reputation of the university and the workload at it say the polar opposite. I think for this review they must have used quotes from persons who were either kicked out or dropped out of the school. They also managed to get the whiniest bunch survey-ees. Could someone please name three colleges that don't have a parking problem? Without thinking more than 1 minute. I just pray that parents of high school Seniors are not using this book as a reference on where to send their children to school. If you really want to know the real deal about a school don't trust Mr. Custard to give you accurate representation. If you really want to know about a school, visit it, ask questions, do your own research. I think that the book was constructed using the Q&D principle. Quick and Dirty. Exactly the research methods used in the creation of this book.

Bottom line: If you are researching prospective schools for your future, DON'T RELY/READ/LOOK AT THE COVER/BE WITHIN 10 FEET OF THIS TRASH.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent reference book for the college-bound
Review: Last year I wrote an extensive review of the various college guides. Our daughter was then in eleventh grade and just beginning her serious consideration of colleges. Now she has heard from all her schools (accepted at 8, waiting list at 1, rejected at 1) and an update seems appropriate.

The Princeton Review guide is probably the best condensed book for a quick overview. They have improved their format slightly from 1999, though most of the text of their descriptions is the same. However they do give a flavor for the political orientation, difficulty getting in index, academic prestige, student to faculty ratio, and quality of campus life.

The Fiske guide is also useful, though my own view is that he tries to say only nice things about each school.

The ISI Guide to Choosing the Right College has definite strengths and weaknesses. The strength or weakness depends on your philosophical orientation. It takes a center right political view and a traditional academic view. It therefore praises schools with a core curriculum and a minimum of political correctness and criticizes institutions which have few or no required courses and a left leaning tendency. However, they make their views fully explicit, so the reader can adjust according to their preferences. The greatest strength is that it names actual professors and lists their courses. Thus these can be avoided or sought after as the student sees fit. Most other guides stick to generalities and avoid specifics.

Again I strongly endorse Marty Nemko's You're Gonna Love This College Guide. See my full review for details. The strength of this book is that it gets the student to think in terms of big versus small, urban versus rural, highly competitive versus high quality without cut-throat competition, etc. It really helped our daughter know what to think about on her tour of colleges.

A few more tips. We found it extremely helpful to look at colleges during spring break of eleventh grade, and again in the fall of twelfth. The essays are VERY important. We are sure that our daughter got in to two excellent schools on the strength of her essays -- and indeed an admission officer from one of those schools specifically told her that after she was accepted. And do whatever you can to get an interview. We have no scientific proof, but it is simply human nature to feel more enthusiastic about a real person whom you have met than a mere bunch of papers. The schools our daughter got in to were all ones where she interviewed. The waiting list school was one where she did not interview. Draw your own conclusions.

Good luck. We'll revisit all of this when our next child starts the process in a couple of years.

Rating:
Summary: We bought a dozen college guides. This one is the best.
Review: Searching for the right college is an overwhelming task. The Princeton Review guide is the best of several books we purchased because it is well organized and because it includes (sometimes uncomfortably) frank comments from students--not the admissions office spin on the school. Each of the featured colleges has a two-page spread in the book. Basic statistics are listed in sidebars on either side of the spread, so if your high school student accumulated only 1,100 on the SATs you can eliminate certain schools right away. If you prefer small schools, the stats show you school populations (with a demographic breakdown) so you can stay away from the large institutions where professors barely see the undergrads. Across the top of the page you find the address, telephone and fax nubmers and Web address. Tuition costs are easy to find in the sidebars. Some schools you're interested in won't be in this book, but most will, although there appears to be a clear East Coast bias. The editors are very honest about the process they go through to determine which of the 3,500 colleges and universities make the cut. Some are eliminated simply because they would not allow Princeton Review editors to interview students. What are they hiding? If you buy only one book to help you find the right college, this should be the one.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but....
Review: The book part of this book/CD package is very good. It has most of the info you need, is readable and is organized well so you can efficiently find and compare the info among the various colleges you may be considering. Unfortunately, the CD, at least the MAC version, is terrible. The program takes more than 60 Mbytes of hard drive space, the data is a bit incomplete, the search engine is crude, slow and inefficient, the interface is buggy and not very MAC-like. I recommend that if the CD is a significant factor in your decision to buy this one, then pass it up.

Rating:
Summary: Great Guide For Narrowing The College Field
Review: This is a good start for parents and students looking to generate that initial list of candidate colleges. The Princeton Review balances the normal statistics with author and student narrative logically grouped by category. This provides a good feel, however subjective, for what you should find on the critical personal campus visit. Especially helpful are student ratings of professor interest and accessibility as well as summaries on the quality of life. Students rate their school as "what's hot" and "what's not" on such criteria as dorms, politics, Greeks, alcohol, food, registration, etc.

This book helped us get past the "view book hype", and prepare specific, sometimes pointed qustions to asked administrators and staff during campus visits with our son. It pays to be an informed and aggressive consumer. The guide gives equal attention to the "usual suspects" -- Harvard, Rice, Stanford, Duke -- as well as emerging or "quiet quality" schools like Truman State, Valparaiso, Santa Clara and James Madison. On the down side, some student annecdotes are stale (repeated from last year's edition) and predictable (love the faculty, loathe the adminstration). It would also be helpful to have found information on schools with programs for the learning disabled. Overall, Princeton gets a narrow nod over Fiske because of its format and organization. It's fun to read, informative, and arms you with insight to take to campus.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly inaccurate
Review: You can find any number of huge, inexpensive, soft-paper college guides on bookshelves and on Amazon. They contain an overwhelming amount of data (and paid ads labeled "supplemental information.") Given the bigger-is-better theory, I figured buying a couple and studying them intently would make college selection easy.

Somehow I always ended up reading them for hours and still never really drawing any conclusions applicable to my high school senior son's choice of colleges.

95% of the schools listed are so specialized or obscure that they were of no interest at all. The 5% that looked promising weren't described well enough (given space limitations) to really choose among them.

College mailings and college fairs aren't much help, either. You end up with the impression that every college is a wonderful oasis of culture and learning, and that every graduate is successful because of their time on campus. That doesn't make the choice easier.

"Best 331 Colleges" is the only book I can recommend for narrowing down the list of possible colleges. In fact, my son said he was afraid to bring it to school because the students and counselors would fight over it.

First, we were surprised that every school we were considering is in the 331. If your student is planning to attend nationally recognized and highly regarded colleges, including top-quality state schools, they're all here.

Each school gets a couple of pages, but it's far more useful information than the usual list of majors offered, sports played, etc. Based on surveys of students, you find out what it's really like to attend that school: academic pressure, quality of student life, how many classes are taught by grad assistants, the political and social climate, costs, difficulty in getting in, etc.

The book also has some questions and recommendations that will help you find schools that meet your needs: if you want a rural campus, for instance, or a school whose politics are conservative, or if you get solid B's in high school and want a good school that you can excel at.

With just the book in front of us for a couple of weekend afternoons, we were able to narrow down my son's prospective list to ten schools, which was our objective in the first place. Our main criteria involved academic reputation, quality of life, campus location, and the kind of students the school tends to attract. I'm confident we had enough information to choose wisely, and a better "big picture" than most guidance counselors could offer.

And the interesting point is that of those 10, at least four were schools we had never even thought of as possibilities. And, we ruled out some of the big-name schools that looked great in the big books, but not so good from the student's perspective.

Now the college selection looks manageable. We've made contact with the schools, sent test scores to them, and planned campus visits.

I recommend this book highly. Even though we're down to the ten choices, I still find myself re-reading it every now and again, just because it's interesting.