<p>Agree with comments re: Fiske & Insider Guide although both seem a bit glowing overall. A book I have found somewhat accurate is titled "Choosing the Right College". It is biased in favor of conservative schools and detests programs such as women's studies,etc. Whether you agree with them or not however they provide 6-7 pages of critique about academics, political correctness, social life ,etc. and it is not sugar coated. If you can get beyond the bias this review gives more data.</p>
<p>Choosing the Right College is great, I agree. I was surprised by how nice they were to Bard, despite their general conservative bias.</p>
<p>I agree that Choosing the Right College is excellent. As a matter of fact, after reading so much of the same material in one book after another, the approach and information was refreshing. I just wish it included more schools.</p>
<p>My daughter liked PR 3XX- I went through the book and turned down all the pages of schools with 88+ academic ratings and turned her loose with it, she developed her list basically from 2 evenings with the book. My thinking was given how skewed those ratings are, if the students themselves couldn't give their school at least an 88 for academics, it was not a reach or match for my academically inclined kid.
I actually liked the Yale Guide better, although all the guides with impressions from students suffer from "cycling" - they visit schools in cycles so a good or bad review persists for several editions in the book, whether or not it is justified. Truly, though, the impressions generally remain the same from PR to Yale to Fiske, they are either mostly accurate or all listening to the same hype.</p>
<p>I read Choosing the Right College, too, it has some good info, and a different approach, but it is extremely conservatively biased and has a "chip on the shoulder" about certain schools, to the point of not being helpful. I'm saying this as a conservative Republican person sharing some of these authors' concerns about core curriculum, who was nevertheless prepared to send her child to Swarthmore if that was what she wanted.</p>
<p>Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges by Frederick E. Rugg
Great for identifying schools strong in a particular major</p>
<p>Fiske Guide to Colleges by Edward Fiske
Good capsules for top schools</p>
<p>The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College by Edward B. Fiske, Bruce G. Hammond
Walks you through the process/timeline</p>
<p>On Writing the College Application Essay by Harry Bauld
NOW I know what they are looking for!</p>
<p>My books are now very well used and were worth every penny. All are available on Amazon.</p>
<p>I found a combination of three books was the best: Fiske for detailed comments, USN&WR for statistics and Harvard Schmarvard (Jay Matthews) for additional perspective. Did not know about the Gatekeepers; read A is for Admissions and found that while it had some interesting information it was arrogant in tone and also turned out to be a little out-of-date.</p>
<p>I liked Harvard Schmarvard , Admissions Confidential and loved the Gatekeepers. For reference, I think the big books are all pretty similar. I like the one by the College Board and Barrons. If there is a college I'm really interested I check it out on the internet and call the college. A good website with up to date admission information is: <a href="http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/index.asp%5B/url%5D">http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/index.asp</a>.</p>
<p>But the most fun is visiting! I would love to do a book on campuses for average kids.</p>
<p>I liked College Admissions Trade Secrets and Rugg's Recommendations</p>
<p>Just a note that I did not find Gatekeepers to be cynical at all.</p>
<p>Most HS college counselors have copies of the major guidebooks. I found it useful to check out the colleges quickly in Fiske, then spend serious time on the college web sites. It helps, before consulting any college guide, to have some idea what you want. Otherwise you find yourself reading 300 descriptions. </p>
<p>For my daughter, I used USNWR to make a list of colleges in the right range of SAT scores, then threw out any colleges that weren't geographically suitable (she wanted the two coasts). I also threw out any colleges that had ever made a list of "top ten party schools." From that list of around 25, we both started reading web sites; I checked Fiske as well. We narrowed that list to a list of schools to be visited and visited about 12 schools; she eventually applied to 5 (one safety (EA), 3 match, one stretch).</p>