Starting the search process with our second child. For child #1, we found having a college guide book to be helpful. Which books would you recommended? Thanks.
We found the Fiske Guide to be very helpful in both of our college search process.
I liked Fiske and Princeton Review. Fiske has more in depth descriptions but covered fewer schools as compared to Princeton Review.
The Fiske Guide is the most honest, and actually admits the shortcomings of various schools. The Princeton Review can at times read like a press release from the school. However, I think buying both would be useful since the overall price of guidebooks is nothing compared to what colleges cost.
Another vote for Fiske.
We liked Fiske but also the Insiders Guide. My kids really liked that one. My daughters also found that the website “Betches Love This College” to provide highly useful information ( despite the obnoxious name)
And though it’s not a real guide we read out loud from “The neurotic Parents Guide to College Admissions” and found it had a surprising amount of wisdom about the process generally and was laugh out loud funny.
You can go to your public library and sample a few before you buy- even if they are an older edition the style will remain the same- in the end you may not even need to buy a book if you check a few out for a while.
Agree - not a lot of changes from year to year.
Another vote for Fiske. The descriptions seemed fairly thorough.
We liked the Yale Insider’s Guide.
Agree that Fiske is great - it has some extra info., such as mentioning competitor schools and why kids might pick college x over college y.
I have a funny story. My son (HS junior) came home stating that his guidance counselor recommended checking out Fiske College. I had not heard of a Fiske college around here. So I went to pick up the guide book to read about it. That’s when I realized she meant the Fiske guide!! (we had an '11 edition for older brother.) I showed it to him and asked if that was what she was talking about. He say, “Oh, yeah, that’s what it was!” 
We borrowed the Fiske and Princeton guides from the local library for both of our college admissions journeys. Took them on the road trips and often killed time just reading aloud about various schools. If nothing else, the honesty found in the Fiske guide can help dispel ‘grass is greener’ leanings based on glossy brochures and brand-name hype.
Ditto checking on the public library college section. If you find a guide that seems organized to your liking with good lists of factors for you then you can always purchase it. Easily could be one mentioned here. Also good to have different references/points of view.
Another vote for Fiske.
I also like The Insiders Guide to Colleges. It is short and easy to carry.
Great feedback. Thanks for all the responses.
Definitely Fiske. Kids found one under the Christmas tree sophmore year. We found it was a good way to ease into college process. We would periodically randomly pick a couple of colleges and read out loud at dinner table. Kids purused on their own as well and the book got a lot of use.
That research might have led you to in interesting diversion, LBowie. Fisk University, in Nashville, is one of the foremost historically Black colleges.
We have found the Fiske guide quite helpful.
However, we recently picked up another, the Washington Monthly THE OTHER GUIDE TO COLLEGE. It is more of a guidebook for students navigating the process of selecting and applying to any given school, but also reviews a few different schools in each region of the country. The schools featured are ones we’d not heard of before, and after researching a couple, found that they would be good options for my daughter. So, I recommend it for that; and for the kid who is looking for something… not necessarily “elite”, maybe a public regional, and “affordable.”
We also bought AMERICA’S BEST COLLEGES FOR B STUDENTS. Not as helpful as the Fiske Guide, imo.