I bought about six different books and honestly I learned more here on CC than from any of those books.
We have Fiske, but a couple others that can be useful (not instead of, but rather in addition to Fiske) are Hidden Ivies and Colleges That Change Lives. Both are smaller and describe fewer colleges, but I found they go into more depth or discuss different aspects than Fiske.
We got the Petersons Guide to the Performing Arts for one kid…and no book at all for the second who was not a performing arts major…