Customer Reviews

The College Board College Handbook 2000: all-new thirty-seventh edition

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This handbook is wonderful for a student that is looking for a guide that contains plentiful information about a large number of colleges. However, it may contain more than you need - if you already have a few colleges in mind. Still, it's a great guide to colleges and is second only to actually visiting colleges themselves.

Published by the College Board, this is a 1700+ page reference that contains basic information on over 3300 colleges. Great source of information for prospective college students and those considering transfer.

This book contains even less information than I could get online (with a site like usnews.com). It has, on average, one quarter of a page per college (a half a page for popular ones) and contains only factual information. For example, you might be able to determine when a college was built, what percentage of males it has, how many freshman it has, and a list of majors. But nothing more - there is no opinion (no rating system like Fiske) and no commentary on the college itself.

A useless waste of money - go with the Fiske guide or stick to Internet-based information sites; they have a ton more information than this remiss handbook.

I have been using the book for quite a while, and I have to say that I've found it extremely useful. Although you can obtain the same information from the internet, extracting, cataloging, and comparing them will take a tremendous amount of time. Using this book, neatly formatted and with hard-data, you are not buying information, you are buying time.

Also, there are some tables / statistics and articles about the college application process, which will give you a head-start.

Since you're reading this review, I assume all of you have access to a computer. The CD which comes with the book is great. I made my college list using the CD, which lets you spesify almost everything. It also has some videos and tutorials for college application.

The only negative side is, the information will gets obselete very quickly. Also, it does not provide a brief description for colleges.

But both facts are actual neccessities: 1)There is no way of magically updating the book with new data. They could have provided some discounts for people who already have the old edition. But most of us will not need the book after we get into college anyway.. so this is not really an issue.

2) There can't be descriptions of the college. Here is why: Collegeboard is an official organization, and it any review would also generate bias, so they rightfully remain silent.

If you are looking for a book, which'll help you to get a feeling of the college, try the Fiske Guide. (the 2002 edition is published)

Overall, the book is a perfect 4-star product. Not excellent, but certainly above average.

This handbook is wonderful for a student that is looking for a guide that contains plentiful information about a large number of colleges. However, it may contain more than you need - if you already have a few colleges in mind. Still, it's a great guide to colleges and is second only to actually visiting colleges themselves.

My 17 year old daughter has used this book and the great CD connection to narrow down her college choices. The ability to search based on the curriculum that you want has been terrific especially with something like dance education. The backpack is wonderful to save and review choices. Worth every penny!