I just listened to a College Essay Guy podcast w/ Mr. Fiske and he mentioned they are having some bugs with the online version…
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I think any book is good. We got Barrons - because I was used to it as a kid. I took my kids through every college in America…not really. But we’d pick two states and do a day. Some states were just a no - and most colleges get glossed over - but some she was like, I should look more into it.
It simply helps you to think of colleges you might not have - so that’s good. You also learn things like Rice isn’t Rice U but Willam Marsh Rice - I kept thinking they missed Rice. And Notre Dame is actually Notre Dame du Lac 
It’s great - if you have a school size in mine, you can quickly say - U of name your state isn’t good - but let’s look more at Augustana in Sioux Falls for example. If you didn’t have a book, you’d never know.
Some books don’t list all colleges. I personally prefer one that does.
Either way, it’s well worth the $20.
Good luck.
Yipes, in my case, “some bugs” means that the collegecountdown.com website that I used to access Fiske Online has disappeared altogether. I found another site, but my log-on credentials, which should still work, don’t.
Will update when I head back from the “contact us” link that I finally found to figure out what’s going on. Good thing for us is that DD had already finalized her list before this happened, but Fiske was quite good. There was some frank information that was better than the other ones I’ve seen.
I did have a problem with Fiske when it lists schools like Rice and Vanderbilt as “best buys” given how expensive their rack rates are.
Bottom line: Fiske Online is (was?) very good.
Thanks so much for your update on the podcast with Mr. Fiske.
I agree with these comments completely. It is nice to have an old fashioned hard copy book sitting around to peruse.
Fiske is like the Cliffs Notes for college admissions. You could sit down with a glass of wine 
and some good music on a Friday night and have a good feel for every college you are interested in as an applicant (maybe not the wine 
) or as a parent by the end of the weekend.
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Agree. It is definitely worth the money.
With regard to US News, anyone relying on their lists should also be checking out the lists from Forbes And Money magazines. They bring a different perspective, so combining the 3 provides a much more balanced POV. Money’s list even includes a “make your own list” search engine.
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Which college guide book lists all 3000 colleges in this country?
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Barrons. All major colleges. Some obscure they deference their online
Others list just the ‘top’ of their best and may be a few hundred. One lists 384.
Barrons had many more.
Again it’s all preference since Fiske is great or there are other alternatives which will be great as well.
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I remember those incredibly enormous Barron’s book of colleges from my high school library. You couldn’t actually pick the book up to read it, you had to look through on a table.
If I remember correctly, it had very basic info - Name of college, address (so you could write to them to get application sent by mail) GPA average for admission, SAT average for admission, selectivity of admission, and some of the better known academic departments. Each school’s listing was fairly sparse…
As I said earlier…Fiske is a good source. This list might help the op find other college guides.
No - they have a lot more - go to Barnes and Noble and check one out. Yes, they still have the Most Competitive, Very Competitive, etc.
I said, for me it’s better - I think it was Fiske or one of them said the best 384 colleges.
I was simply saying - having a book is good - and there’s many to choose from. I’d go to the library or Barnes & NOble if one is nearby and check the various pubs out - and see which is right for OP.
But in general, these guides are a huge help.
I simply stated my preference is a wider list than a narrower list - that’s all. But that’s me - I can’t speak for OP.
Hello @cpd,
The guides we trusted most were Fiske, Princeton Review, and US News. These have been at it the longest and have stood the test of time and benefited from years of feedback. A new one that I think has a lot of promise is “Colleges Worth Your Money.” I’ll also mention “The College Finder,” which is the book version of the lists found on College Express.
The Common Data Sets are also very useful. All but a few publish them and post on their respective websites.
Of the publications you listed, the one I have the most doubts about is Niche.
Good luck!
Just got my $5 version of the 2022 edition off of Amazon and have already marked off about 15 schools for s24 and I to look at and see if they should go on the list, would never have thought of this! Thanks OP for the post
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I agree all of these books can be useful, as they all bring a different perspective. We had a whole stack. If cost is an issue, it’s usually possible to buy older editions or used copies cheaply, and most of the information in these books doesn’t ordinarily change much from year to year. Updated statistical information can always be found on the college websites or data sets.
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Fiske is refreshingly direct, and is a good starting point. But distilling a school down to two pages is an oversimplification, so one should take it with several grains of salt.
The reality of college admissions is that the top 300+ schools are where the interest is. To get to 3000 schools, you are including all the regional and local small private and state colleges. There is nothing to write about those schools - you either want to or need to stay close to home, or you have a yen for a particular state and can just pick out a school that isn’t rejective in that state. Only the 300ish schools in Fiske are rejective in various degrees, so they are the only ones that would benefit from the guidebook approach. The College Navigator website is good enough to look up the rest.
Another vote here for Fiske. It seems to do a better job thank most of at least trying to convey the feel of a school.
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Never used it. Don’t think we missed anything we couldn’t find online. If you are really open to the whole country then it might be useful or if you just like physical books (I love them), but if you are trying to stay in one area I don’t know. It just didn’t seem worth it to me.
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I hadn’t thought about the helpfulness of Fiske if your child is planning on staying local before but I think you bring up a very good point that it probably isn’t necessary if you can actually visit the schools because they’re close.
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Yep I thought the in person visits were the most helpful thing we did for sure. They weren’t all in-state, but were in the Southeast. Almost made a trip to the Midwest, but she fell in love with one of the other colleges we visited before that came to fruition.
One of the Sprouts (local grocery chain somewhat akin to Trader’s Joes) I shop at is in the same plaza as a non-profit resale store I frequently donate to. I always check their bookshelves and recently scored the 2022 Fiske and Colleges Worth Your Money for $4 total (it was half-off day). I also see these books in libraries at their “Friends of the Library” book resale areas. Just a few IRL places to find recent good-condition second-hand copies.
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