<p>So I'm beginning my intensive search for colleges I will apply to, and I'm considering Canada and the US.</p>
<p>But I was wondering which college guidebook would be the best to buy. Right now I'm considering the new College Handbook by the Collegeboard, and the Fiske Guide to Colleges... which is better? Or maybe Princeton Review? Or any other suggestions?</p>
<p>I'm a little bit stuck because I don't get to peruse each book before purchasing it, so any advice and direction would be greatly appreciated :)</p>
<p>You can read all the important parts of Princeton Review (the student quotes) online, so it’s not really worth buying, I think. Fiske is good, Insiders’ Guide to the Colleges is also good.</p>
<p>I’m not completely sure which college guidebook you’re referring to by Collegeboard, but I would guess it’s a thick doorstopper full of impersonal statistics and you wouldn’t be able to get a feel for a college with it. I do recommend Fiske and Princeton Review. There was also a similar thread on this from a few days ago: </p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/741354-what-books-sites-etc-do-you-recommend-more-indepth-look-colleges.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/741354-what-books-sites-etc-do-you-recommend-more-indepth-look-colleges.html</a></p>
<p>Just remember, it’s not particularly wise to go by the stats found in those published college guides as they can be outdated by two, maybe three years. Besides, you’ll be able to find those relevant figures that prospective students are so fixated on within the admissions portion of respective schools’ websites. The only guide I used was Fiske’s, which did, in my opinion, a respectable job capturing the essence of each school (though they, like most college guides I would assume, placed too much emphasis on Ivies and the like).</p>
<p>Why don’t you try an online college search site before you spend the money to buy a book. Collegeboard has a college matching service and myUsearch.com is a great resource as well. They are both free. I would save your money on the books.</p>
<p>I recently asked this question myself, and came away with the conclusion that none of the books are very useful.</p>
<p>Colleges That Change Lives and Looking Beyond the Ivy League by Loren Pope are phenomenal.</p>
<p>I also liked Fiske Guide to Colleges and The Insiders Guide to Colleges a lot.</p>
<p>Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges is quite good.</p>