Best College Guide?

<p>I like Fiske as well, and if I could only pick one, that would probably be it. For such a big decision, though, buy a couple more--PR's guide is good, and "Choosing the Right College" is excellent in its unique approach.</p>

<p>I also liked the feel of Fiske and Fiske very much liked the feel of my college choice. Still, considering the plethora of college guides and the sameness of content, I really liked “Choosing the Right College” even though it was at best polite when discussing my college choice. It offered information none of the others did. Whether you like there philosophy or not you will get a new perspective on the college you are interested in.</p>

<p>"Choosing the Right College" was the best by far. It had humor, incredible depth, and a perspective that, while could get preachy, at least was a perspective and made it more interesting than any other guide. I mean, who can forget the "water buffalo" incident at UPenn or the tales of coed rooms and bathrooms at Brown et al.? You don't get things like that from the others. This year's edition also is updated from last year's and there are a number of minor additions to every article.</p>

<p>Fiske struck me as rather arbitrary in its star ratings. It just didn't make sense a lot of the time. But at least it had up-to-date details about many things.</p>

<p>I'll join the PR hate train- I have seen many, many instances of it drastically changing its opinion of a college from guide to guide and have also seen the horriblely wrong comments mentioned earlier stick around from year to year. Its ratings have little fact and seem to be subject to many worthless statistics. Also, the rankings, though funny, seem to change too much each year to be worth anything.</p>

<p>I found the most in-depth an accurate portrayal of my college (rice) in the insider's guide to the colleges. Not sure about all the profiles in the book, but that one was pretty much dead-on.</p>

<p>Yet more praise for Fiske from this corner -- I've found it to be the fairest and most thorough.</p>

<p>I like Fiske for accurate data- I like Yale for feel of student life- & US NEws for info about finaid/loans
I like Petersons online info to be helpful, Discounts and Deals to have good info about finaid & Popes to be good about lesser known schools.
However most of the guides focus on the top 300 or 500 schools, but keep trying if you are looking for something off the beaten path.</p>

<p>The problem with the "Choosing the Right College" is that it conceals the nature of its reporting and relationships with right-wing political groups.</p>

<p>For example, when they use student quotes, they don't tell you that the students being quoted were attending conferences by ISI's sister organization that funds and provides editorial content for right-wing campus newspapers.</p>

<p>Or, they refer to reports by impartial sounding organizations like the National Association of Scholars, without mentioning that the NAS is a right-wing organization dedicated to publishing anti-affirmative action research, focusing curriculum exclusively on white European canon, etc.</p>

<p>So the whole thing is partisan politics masquerading as a fair and balanced guide. They are banking on the fact that their readers will not bother to do the research on the nature and funding of ISI and their related organizations.</p>

<p>Because their college guide is so agenda-driven and so eager to find examples in support of their mission, they publish a lot of superficial misleading characterizations. For example, their "research" into curriculum often goes no further than a cursory look at the course titles of freshmen seminars, not even bothering to look at the underlying course syllabus. At one school, they complain that one of the English Dept. freshman seminars have "Shakespeare" in the course title, but miss the fact that most of those seminars have Western canon material from the Greeks to Shakespearian plays on the reading list.</p>

<p>The factual material contained in the ISI guide is fine, but appears to be largely cribbed from, or at least available in, many other guides.</p>

<p>I don't think the Choosing the Right College guide hides anything about their viewpoint. You sound a little paranoid.</p>

<p>
[quote]
The problem with the "Choosing the Right College" is that it conceals the nature of its reporting and relationships with right-wing political groups.

[/quote]
Utter, complete hogwash.
For reasons that I will probably never understand, InterestedDad insists on trotting out this ludicrous and demonstrably untenable statement every time the ISI Guide is mentioned.</p>

<p>The ISI Guide is unabashedly conservative. The first president of the organization was William F. Buckley. The introduction to the college guide was written by William Bennett. Blurbs on the back cover were written by, among others, Thomas Sowell, Cal Thomas, Michael Medved, Walter Williams, Midge Dector, John Silber, Laura Schlessinger, and Christina Hoff Sommers. So....anyone who thinks it's "masquerading" as anything other than a conservative college guide needs to improve their reading skills before the go off to college.

[quote]
For example, when they use student quotes, they don't tell you that the students being quoted were attending conferences by ISI's sister organization that funds and provides editorial content for right-wing campus newspapers.

[/quote]
What's your source for this? Answer: You don't have one. You have a bad habit of making things up, ID.
[quote]
Or, they refer to reports by impartial sounding organizations like the National Association of Scholars, without mentioning that the NAS is a right-wing organization dedicated to publishing anti-affirmative action research, focusing curriculum exclusively on white European canon, etc

[/quote]
This is a cheap slur. It's a group of distinguished academics, who may or may not agree with your personal views on higher education. You can see the NAS Board of Advisors here: <a href="http://www.nas.org/nas/bd_advisors.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nas.org/nas/bd_advisors.htm&lt;/a> Donald Kagan, Harvey Mansfield, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, John Silber....I'm sure they're more to the right of you, ID, but you have no business trying to mischaracterize them.
[quote]
The factual material contained in the ISI guide is fine, but appears to be largely cribbed

[/quote]
Closing with a statement that borders on libel was a nice touch, ID. I suppose you have a source for this, too? I thought not.</p>

<p>"the whole thing is partisan politics masquerading as a fair and balanced guide."</p>

<p>Interesteddad,</p>

<p>It perhaps missed your fixed gaze to notice that in the title the word "Right" is highlighted, a clue to the dim for sure...perhaps they should add, "sour-mouthed liberals beware".</p>

<p>In defense of interesteddad they do not present a balanced view...although they don't pretend to as noted.</p>

<p>This is obviously a nuclear topic for a number of forum contributors. But as someone without the history of previous debates, I was completely unaware of either the conservative background of ISI or its guidebook. I found the detail provided by the college descriptions to be of value compared to the standard reviews such as PR. But I did notice some peculiarites of bias in their reviews that are now explained by the conservative agenda of the parent organization. I have to admit to completely missing the double entendre of the title. I doubt I am the only one and I doubt the publishers were eager to expose this. However, I think for the sake of fairness they should have been more forthright in where they are coming from in a prominant spot on the cover. It would allow readers to better digest the info with an appropriate grain of salt.</p>

<p>Maybe you could read the back cover or the intro sections. Pretty clear where it's coming from.</p>

<p>collegedad:</p>

<p>That's what happened to me. As I skimmed through the college blurbs, I was struck by how bad all these schools must be.</p>

<p>Finally, I started wondering "Who is ISI?". Then, I started looking at their related organizations, such as "Collegiate Network" and realized that the whole thing is a political organization.</p>

<p>The editor of the conservative student paper at Swarthmore wrote about her experiences with ISI -- attending their conferences, etc. -- a few years back.</p>

<p>Here's an interesting artice from Salon.com written about her experiences:</p>

<p><a href="http://archive.salon.com/it/feature/1999/02/19feature.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://archive.salon.com/it/feature/1999/02/19feature.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>It's an interesting and disturbing article. I find particularly disturbing the way such organizations hide their agressive agendas behind bland and misleading names. They have the right to promote their agendas but it needs to be in the open to allow for an actual debate and discussion. And I did look at the intro sections which are available on-line. I disagree that their agenda is so clear. In fact I think it is hidden behind codes words of a "liberal" arts education.</p>

<p>ID,</p>

<p>I recently googled Brown U. and came up with a page on the ISI Forum site, in which the entire <em>Choosing the Right College</em> entry for Brown is shared. I am glad to have read your post here, as I had wondered about ISI: there is a fair amount of sarcasm in the Brown entry, and the intent of the sarcasm is clearer to me in context.</p>

<p>For anyone interested:</p>

<p><a href="http://forum.isi.org/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/3090060552/m/9330025762%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://forum.isi.org/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/3090060552/m/9330025762&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I have to comment on the ISI guide. First, consider this: : Other guidebooks like Princeton Review and the Fiske Guide identify the EXACT SAME SCHOOLS as the ISI Guide as being liberal. Are they also "biased" --- or is it just that this particular guide is published by an organization that some here don't like?</p>

<p>I don't have a problem with the ISI Guide --- it is another useful data point. They are upfront from the get go that this is a book for people looking for schools that do two things:</p>

<p>1) focus on a core curriculum
2) allow conservative viewpoints to be discussed - and even welcomed - openly on campus.</p>

<p>I found the book to be useful simply because there is NO OTHER book on the market that discusses the CURRICULUM of various colleges in such detail. The discussion of curriculum is not particularly biased: it is based on factual information received from each school.</p>

<p>Beyond that, however, I found the book useful because it really does open one's eyes up to the fact that not everyone is going to be looking for the same thing in a college. For people who would be turned off by a college that has a left-of-center student and/or administration slant, this is useful information.</p>

<p>collegedad1 said:
[quote]
I was completely unaware of either the conservative background of ISI or its guidebook. I found the detail provided by the college descriptions to be of value compared to the standard reviews such as PR. But I did notice some peculiarites of bias in their reviews that are now explained by the conservative agenda of the parent organization. I have to admit to completely missing the double entendre of the title.

[/quote]
collegedad1 then said:
[quote]
And I did look at the intro sections which are available on-line. I disagree that their agenda is so clear. In fact I think it is hidden behind codes words of a "liberal" arts education.

[/quote]
So, my question, CD1, is have you actually read or seen a copy of the book or not?</p>

<p>Carolyn said:
[quote]
I don't have a problem with the ISI Guide --- it is another useful data point. They are upfront from the get go that this is a book for people looking for schools that do two things:1) focus on a core curriculum
2) allow conservative viewpoints to be discussed - and even welcomed - openly on campus.

[/quote]
Bingo, as usual, Carolyn</p>

<p>ID: Feel free to address my specific points (above, #29) whenever you feel able.</p>

<p>Just wanted to reiterate: Many of the "mainstream" guides also note the same political tendencies on the SAME campuses in the ISI guide. Are they all wrong as well? </p>

<p>The purpose of ANY guide is to point out the pro's and con's of different schools as the AUTHORS (and publishers) see them. Should we all start rampaging in the streets every time a guidebook paints a school we favor or send our kid to in any sort of negative light? </p>

<p>I don't think so. </p>

<p>I buy and read guidebooks for the same reason I come here to CC: I like to hear and consider a variety of viewpoints before forming my own. The simple fact is: no school is perfect to 100% of the world's population. Every school will have its defenders and detractors. And, what one person sees as a fault, someone else will see as a plus. </p>

<p>Hearing or reading opinions that I don't agree with doesn't upset me. What does upset me is the notion that only CERTAIN viewpoints are worthy of consideration.</p>

<p>Hi Carolyn,</p>

<p>Yup, it is great to have a variety of opinions out there! I am glad to know that there are. In fact, I have an old guide called the National Review Guide to Colleges, just to help me have a more complete look at what points of view there are.</p>