<p>I am looking to buy a couple of College guidebooks to start the college search and am looking for recommendations. I am looking for a guide that includes all the typical statistics as well as a glimpse into the culture of each school. </p>
<p>I am specifically looking for a highly academic, small to medium sized Liberal Arts school anywhere on the East Coast ideally located in a rural or suburban location with some diversity but not hippie. Any suggestions???</p>
<p>The bookstore is filled with guidebooks and I am not sure which are the best to reference when compiling a list of colleges to visit.</p>
<p>US News Best Colleges, Fiske Guide, Princeton Review</p>
<p>When you say "Liberal Arts School" do you mean a smaller college without graduate programs that has the traditional liberal arts curriculum? Like Swarthmore, Haverford, Middlebury, Carleton, Williams, Bowdoin, Wesleyan, Wellesley, Claremont McKenna?</p>
<p>Or, would you consider medium size universities like Tufts, Georgetown, U Rochester?</p>
<p>I am looking at schools with a maxium of 6000 students - preferably no more than 2500. I am very interested in colleges that offer most of their classes in a seminar/socratic style. </p>
<p>I do not care about the prestige of a college, I am more concerned with finding a highly academic school with engaged students and professors who are excited about teaching. </p>
<p>I live in North Carolina and have already visited Duke, College of William & Mary, UNC, Davidson and the College of St. John in Annapolis. None of these have been a fit for me yet. Thanks!</p>
<p>I still think going through an actual printed book with all the info in one place is far handier than trying to get it free from the net. It's only about $20 and without sales there is no book. When you are looking at a $100,000+ investment spending a few bucks on college guides is well spent.</p>
<p>This is what I did, and I think I've come up with an amazing and awesome list of schools that I'm very pleased with:</p>
<p>I started my search at princetonreview.com, signed up, and searched the name of a school I knew. In my case, William and Mary, a small southern public with the feel of an intimite New England LAC. I looked up "other schools students were interested in" and checked out those schools, and just fanned out from there! A college search engine like the one on princetonreview can be helpful, although I don't recommend taking what it says about your "chances" at face value. </p>
<p>In your case, check out St. John's on princetonreview and look for the "other schools students were interested in" section of the profile. Also, use the "counseler-o-matic" to specify size of school and majors you are interested in to get a quick list of more schools to check out. </p>
<p>Just from browsing and checking out the cursory info of a school I made a pretty big list of places that seemed "interesting", from UVa to UCLA to Dartmouth to my state flagship. I then visited a school with a communications program, one without, a small school, a big school, and was able to narrow down my list based on what I liked.</p>
<p>Also invaluable to my search was a list of accredited journalism schools. I went down the list and checked out every school's webpage and cross-references on princetonreview. I've since decided to narrow my search down to schools with strong liberal arts but also a strong communications program. If there is a specific major you are looking for it may be easier to make a list than you thought. </p>
<p>I never once picked up a guidebook. I find them to be too cursory to be worth anything. Why pay the money when you can find the info for free online usually? I actually find the online surveys and quick ability to check out stats in one window and open up the college website in another much easier to navigate than a hefty book organized alphabetically.</p>
<p>kmszoom, could you give us a bit more info? I am also from NC (applied/accepted to UNC, Davidson, Wake, Duke, U Chicago, Johns Hopkins, and Yale), and I'm a Duke student, so I know a lot about these schools. What exactly was it that you didn't like? From your description, Davidson seems like a good match, and quite possibly Duke as well.</p>
<p>Kmszoom heres an extract of mine from a previous post that might be relevant. I like the approach that MissSuperFantastic took as well begin broadly and then narrow your scope. Good luck!</p>
<p>*We got a copy of the Fiske book but didn't find it to be that useful -- somewhat general and just didn't give enough good information. We found the Princeton Review Best 361 Colleges book to be more comprehensive. </p>
<p>I had my daughter go through the Princeton Review book and tab every school of any interest to her. We then went back and analyzed each school for all the factors she felt were REALLY important, from academic programs to size to stats on graduation rate, costs, etc. From this list, we drilled down deeply to all schools of interest and did a spreadsheet of all tangible factors. Each school was researched thoroughly, beginning with a detailed review of what was available on a school's website. We eliminated some duplicates, especially for match/safety schools, by doing simple comparisons, i.e., "does this one appeal to you more, or this one"... "how about this one, or this one", etc. The process was a long one that began in earnest in my daughter's junior year in H.S. There was not a school that she applied to that she did not VISIT (which is probably the best way to get to know any school), and there were schools she did visit that she did NOT apply to.*</p>
<p>Princeton Review Best 361 for browsing and getting a little flavor of the schools.
Choosing the Right College for a more complete picture of the colleges that intrigue you. Be warned-- the authors have strong opinions about what makes a good college education. I thought "omg, why did I buy this" when I read the first entry. But whether or not you agree with the author's criteria, there is a lot of good information in the book.</p>
<p>Most suburban/rural LACs don't necessarily have a lot of diversity, but you may find something you like out of Princeton, Dartmouth, Williams, Bowdoin, Colgate, Middlebury, Tufts, Colby.</p>