Best College Guidbook(s) for Helpful Insights

<p>We have a bunch of old college guidebooks that are 3-4 years old (Fiske, US News, Yake Insider, Princeton). </p>

<p>Thinking about refreshing/adding to the collection both to ensure we have the latest info and to get some new perspectives. </p>

<p>I know a lot of good student perspective can be found here and on other websites, and lots of quantitative data can be found on CollegeBoard and the school site,s etc. </p>

<p>Wondering what guidebooks other parents find useful for subjective (but accurate and meaningful) perspectives on top-50 type colleges/universities?</p>

<p>I just go on our local library website, and start seeing which college books look interesting and put them on hold. Then zip in and pick them up. Then, I would decide which ones might be worth buying.</p>

<p>Colleges That Change Lives, by Loren Pope</p>

<p>The Hidden Ivies, by Greene & Greene</p>

<p>Cool Colleges, by Donald Asher</p>

<p>I liked the titles ALF mentioned.
Be forewarned that the top 50 schools changes depending on which way you’re standing.
;)</p>

<p>The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges!</p>

<p>Absolutely agree about [Cool</a> Colleges](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580088392/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1580081509&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KQEEJ52W3DRET3EGF20]Cool”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580088392/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=1580081509&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0KQEEJ52W3DRET3EGF20) by Donald Asher - one of my favorite books!</p>

<p>For a more traditional guide, I’d suggest: [Choosing</a> the Right College](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Choosing-Right-College-2012-13-Americas/dp/1610170059]Choosing”>http://www.amazon.com/Choosing-Right-College-2012-13-Americas/dp/1610170059). To get a sense of what it includes, you can visit the website: [url=&lt;a href=“http://www.collegeguide.org%5DCollegeGuide.org%5B/url”&gt;http://www.collegeguide.org]CollegeGuide.org[/url</a>].</p>

<p>Great suggestions on books I’d heard of but not read – please keep the recommendations coming!</p>

<p>I disagree with College that Change Lives - it’s a perspective that may open your mind but remember he evaluated these schools many moons ago, when colleges were a lot less expensive- which I think tuition is a game changer.</p>

<p>I tried a few books but they seemed dated or slanted in one way or another so I did not find them to be so helpful.</p>

<p>For basic facts, I prefer Princeton Review to Fiske. I think the consistent placement of the sidebar info (SAT, GPA, etc), makes it easy to thumb through in formulating initial lists. The “student life” passages seem pretty honest too. I get annoyed with Fiske for not sticking to alphabetical order. I’m using a PR guide from 2011 and it seems up-to-date, for the most part. Comparing it to later guides, some info is different–mostly deadlines for EA/ED etc. (but really, you should be checking the websites by the time you’re considering that). I wish someone would update the CTCL book because the info is nearly a decade old and there have to be other up-and-coming schools that would fit this description.</p>

<p>MODERATOR’S NOTE: It is an infraction of the Terms of Service to “spell around the filter,” which includes giving hints about the name of any website that is filtered by CC. Please don’t do it.</p>

<p>I haven’t even seen it but I understand there’s a book called Rugg’s Recommendations that’s supposed to be very good. I used the Fiske lists of colleges for certain majors to help come up with lists for my kids to run through.</p>

<p>Rugg’s guide is unique because it lists recommended colleges for each major. It sorts each list into several categories based on their selectivity. It is a great starting place for researching colleges. I think the newer editions are electronic only??? Amazon has the 27th edition from 2009, but his website store has a PDF version of the 29th edition.</p>

<p>[Welcome</a> to Rugg’s Recommendations](<a href=“http://www.ruggsrecommendations.com/index.html]Welcome”>http://www.ruggsrecommendations.com/index.html)</p>

<p>Revised/updated CTCL: <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122304[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143122304&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>"For the latest edition of this classic college guide, Hilary Masell Oswald conducted her own tours of top schools and in-depth interviews, building on Loren Pope’s original to create a totally updated, more expansive work. "</p>

<p>My s’s found the Yale Daily New’s Insiders giude to colleges the most helpful,</p>

<p>Choosing the Right College has the most info and does regular updates unlike Fiske and Yale which print the same old/wrong info for a decade.</p>

<p>Wrong info about what, barrons? Yes, YDN should survey the students and update that info more frequently (esp since they print a new book annually) but overall we found it quite accurate with respect to the “feel” of being a student there, the activities on/off campus, etc. In fact, the stuff about my undergrad sounded remarkably spot on decades later!</p>

<p>Luckily things at most schools do change very little. But reprinting 10 and even 20 year old stories just seems lazy.</p>

<p>It may be difficult to survey and update every school every year, but surely its doene more frequently than every 10-20 years. That sounds unfair.</p>

<p>Choosing the Right College appears to have a politically conservative angle on colleges. I’d be interested to see if ISI’s political beliefs are evident in the discussion of the actual colleges in the guide?</p>

<p>The “about”: [About</a> - ISI in Depth - home.isi.org](<a href=“http://home.isi.org/about]About”>http://home.isi.org/about)</p>