Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012, 28E [Paperback]

Edward Fiske (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2011 | Series: Fiske Guide to Colleges

"The best college guide you can buy." -USA Today

For more than 25 years, this leading guide to more than 310 colleges and universities-fully updated and expanded every year-has been an indispensable source of information for college-bound students and their parents. Helpful, honest, and straightforward, the Fiske Guide to Colleges delivers an insider's look at the academic climates and the social and extracurricular scenes at the "best and most interesting" schools in the United States, plus Canada and Great Britain.

In addition to the candid essays on each school, you will find:

-A self-quiz to help you understand what you are really looking for in a college

- Lists of the strongest majors and programs at each college

- Vital information on how to apply, including admissions and financial aid deadlines, required tests, and each school's essay questions

- "Overlap" listings to help you expand your options

- Selectivity statistics and SAT/ACT scores

- Indexes that break down schools by price and state

- A list of schools with strong programs for learning disabled students

- All the basics, including email addresses and university websites

Plus a special section highlighting the 45 public and private Best Buy schools-colleges that provide the best educational value

Editorial Reviews

Review

I'm a fan of the Fiske Guide to Colleges. Each profiled school is described by a well-crafted 1,000 to 2,500 word essay that draws on information from students, administrators, and independent research. The book is pleasingly readable with concise side boxes containing numerical data on SAT scores, retention rates, acceptance rates, and so on.

Don't expect a ton of objective data in the Fiske Guide to Colleges. The lover of numbers would do better with the U.S. News and World Report Ultimate College Guide or Peterson's Four-Year Colleges. That said, numbers rarely tell the story of a school effectively. The essays in the Fiske Guide employ both subjective and objective information to capture the real "feel" of a school. Since picking the perfect college is more about a personality match than anything numerical, Fiske's efforts to capture the personalities of the schools should be applauded.

Any prospective college student should certainly purchase a copy of this book. Fiske's Guide to College 2008 will become your virtual bible as you begin and progress through the difficult and often overwhelming college admissions process.

The guide is notable as much for its focus on each school's personality and quality of life as for its statistical data and admissions information.

This guidebook makes an excellent effort to give students good, relative info for school-to-school comparisons.

About the Author

Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as education editor of the New York Times, where he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He is also the author of the Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Product Details

• Paperback: 864 pages
• Publisher: Sourcebooks; 28 edition (July 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1402209622
• ISBN-13: 978-1402209628
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 1.9 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 51 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 stars... not bad but not the starting place for college-search August 25, 2011

By Paul Allaer TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

"Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012" (848 pages) is a curious college-guidance/search book in my opinion. It lists the "best and most interesting" colleges in the country, about 300 out of 2,200 four year colleges in the US (and even a couple of Canadian and British schools) are written up. According to the introduction, they were selected on the basis of academic quality, geographic diversity, a balance of public and private schools, and schools that are currently popular for certain programs (engineering and technical schools, religious emphasis, etc.). Being from Ohio, I look at the list of 12 schools that "made the cut" and inexplicably Xavier University (a fine Jesuit college here in Cincinnati) is left out of the book. Huh? While the descriptions give a good flavor of a particular college, there are essentials missing, such as the exact tuition/room/board (there is only a general 1 to 4 star rating on how expensive a college is, and even those are misleading, for example American University is listed as "moderately" expensive). Also not helpful in my opinion is that the colleges are presented alphabetically, rather than by state, since most kids look at colleges in a particular state (usually their home state), although there is an index by state.

On the other hand, the descriptions of the schools are oftentimes right on point. Check the first sentence on American University (where my youngest one is going): "If the odds to enter Georgetown are against you and you can't see yourself on GW's highly urban campus, welcome to American University." That is EXACTLY what happened to my daughter: not admitted to Georgetown, admitted to GW and AU, but not at all charmed by GW's urban campus, hence she's at American. The descriptions of the school my son attended are also on point.

When my daughter was simply looking to get basic information, she did not spend a lot of time with this book. As she narrowed her choices, she did read up more on her pool of colleges in this book. Bottom line: if you are at the very beginning of your college search, this is not the book to start with. For that I might instead suggest "The Complete Book of Colleges" issued by the Princeton Review. The "Fisk Guide to Colleges" is instead more helpful to get a second (or third) opinion once your child has narrowed down his/her selection of colleges of interest (assuming of course it made the cut of 300).

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but some info is incorrect. July 6, 2011

By Paul K. Stauffer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a good college guide, among the best available. I have a 2010 edition and looked forward to the updated 2012 edition, as my daughter is a Senior in high school. The overall write-ups tend to emphasize the positive, with minor coverage of the negatives. The guide has helpful summary ratings on three categories. 1. Academics, 2. Social, and 3. Quality of Life. It can range from 1 to 6 in each category. Some of the ratings seem to be off, but generally they get it right.

Make sure you read the parents and student pledges at the back of the book. They are helpful, true, and amusing.

I was a bit disappointed that some of the info is not accurate. Some things I found wrong or puzzling:

1. Goucher College criticism that says the library closes at 6PM on Saturday. That was true in the old library from a few years ago. It is open 24/7.

2. Reference to Towson State in the Goucher College review: Towson University is the name of the school, as it has been since 1997. You would think the editors would pick up this name change, since it was 13 years ago.

3. University of Maryland not listed for strong music programs from large universities. Not only is MD strong in music, they have the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, which is among the largest and nicest facilities on the East Coast. Big omission.

I am taking off one star for its inaccuracies. Also, Kindle edition is highly needed! This book is too thick to cart around.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Little new information April 4, 2012

By Treebranch

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

The qualitative information in Fiske seemed a useful supplement to the more thorough statistical data available through U.S. News the first time I bought it in 2008, even though I had doubts about the reliability of its very small sampling of opinions. However, for all the colleges we looked up in the 2012 edition, the commentary is virtually unchanged from the one four years ago. Thus, it's not worth buying more than once unless you check beforehand to make sure there's been major updating.