<p>I'm considering getting a cheap used copy of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. I already have the Princeton Review Best 366 Colleges and have found the descriptions worthless. Are the Fiske ones better?</p>
<p>We have the 2009 Fiske Guide. (I hear 2010 is now available.) I like it just fine.</p>
<p>Faint hints are about all one can expect out of three paragraphs. The faint hints from Best 366 were actually helpful to our family, whereas the Fiske descriptions were not. Your experience may be exactly opposite. Good luck with the search!</p>
<p>I found Fiske much more useful than Princeton Review. Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>What are we talking $5-$10 here?? If you get one good morsel out of it, that’s worth it.</p>
<p>Fun to read, but sometimes stereotypical to the point of inaccuracy, and I think not updated very often or very professionally–too bad because the original Fiske was fairly reliable as I recall. (Education editor of the NY Times or some such.)</p>
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<p>I’m agreeing with you here. I wish both my sons had never picked up the Princeton Review because of the oversimplified, one-shot quotes that skewed their opinions of certain colleges. </p>
<p>Of the two, Fiske is far better, but again, read everything with a grain of salt. These guidebooks are not conscientious about keeping up to date; it’s too easy for them to crank out printings with the same stereotypical descriptions year after year.</p>
<p>Also look at Insider’s Guide to Colleges (written by staff at the Yale Daily News) and Student’s Guide to Colleges (reviews of the schools written by the actual students that attend them)… I think both of these are more useful than Princeton Review. Princeton Review is a good starting point, in my opinion, though.</p>
<p>i have read a lot of both the Princeton review and the Fiskes guide. I find Fiske’s to be more helpful both in format and amount of information presented.</p>
<p>there were things in my 09 Fiske that were outdated.</p>
<p>I think they get the gist right. The rest is minor for the most part as in some building being under construction is now fiished.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments. Here’s what I can get for $4.00 including shipping:</p>
<p>Fiske Guide to Colleges
Students’ Guide to Colleges
The Insider’s Guide to the Colleges
Rugg’s Recommendations on the Colleges</p>
<p>Don’t worry too much about being right up-to-the minute, since I’m sure they all are somewhat out of date and I’m ordering a year-old version anyway.</p>
<p>What would you do?</p>
<p>EDIT: I should mention that my primary beef with the Princeton Review book is the lack of meat regarding academics. I can use college visits to seriously narrow down schools based on social life, but I need a book that lists details about the quality of different programs at the school. Which departments are best? Are students in one field exposed to more research opportunities?</p>
<p>Strike the Students’ Guide to Colleges. I checked it out on Amazon and don’t like what I see.</p>
<p>I never looked at the guide books and I tend to do the research more myself. I looked at College Board and Princeton Review online for a lot of the help. I have also talked to a lot of people on here and elsewhere who have given me suggestions. I wouldn’t pay for a book when I can find the info myself.</p>
<p>^ I’m not talking about statistics. Those are easily available through the NCES for any group of colleges imaginable. I am hoping for a somewhat more in-depth look at academics in individual departments. Maybe it’s a futile goal…</p>
<p>I found a lot of help on here. I have interests in dramatic writing, print journalism and acting and have found a lot of info on all of them. Dramatic Writing is something which only a dozen have and are known for it. I found it easy by looking it up on CC and finding out about the school and the program. You can ask someone on here what they think about that school and program too.</p>
<p>Fiske is pretty good. Check out College ******* too.</p>
<p>For specific academic depts none of the mass market guides has much to offer.</p>
<p>I feel that the narratives in Fiske are much more “readable” than the droning on of dry stats found in many other books. The margins do contain enough stats to satisfy the stat geek in all of us. What I find most interesting is “% admitted” vs. “% of admitted who enroll”. Also, the list of comparable schools.</p>
<p>Fiske is good. I like the fact that they include schools that aren’t necessarily “big name” schools. They also make it easier to compare academic, quality of life and social ratings for each school. I thought their descriptions were very accurate.</p>