The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College: The Complete Guide to Everything You Need to Know to Getting into and Pay ing fo r College (1997) [Paperback]

Bruce Hammond (Author)

Book Description

Series: 1997 | Publication Date: August 12, 1997

Nobody knows more about college than Edward B. Fiske, whose annual college guide is consistently ranked the very best of the bunch. This book walks students step-by-step through the application process, and shows them how to apply to the appropriate schools, craft a successful application, make the most of interviews and visits, decide once the admissions letters are in, and obtain scholarships and financial aid, and more.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Fiske, author of the well-known series of college guides, as well as How to Get into the Right College (1988), here teams up with Hammond to present an exceptionally useful overview for the college bound. Parents will certainly be interested (one chapter is addressed especially to them), but the authors are really writing directly to students. Information on everything from interviews to standardized tests, college essays, and financing is included, along with a handy "road map" of institutions, organized into such categories as "Small College Bargains," "Most Innovative Curriculums," and "Colleges for Students with Learning Disabilities." In addition, there is a selective roundup of listings by subject specialty--engineering, architecture, business, etc. Further resources, including Web sites, appear in a separate chapter. In all, this is a first-rate introduction that will help students narrow the field while still allowing them to cover the territory. Stephanie Zvirin

From the Inside Flap

Nobody knows more about college than Edward B. Fiske, whose annual college guide is consistently ranked the very best of the bunch. This book walks students step-by-step through the application process, and shows them how to apply to the appropriate schools, craft a successful application, make the most of interviews and visits, decide once the admissions letters are in, and obtain scholarships and financial aid, and more.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 230 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1st edition (August 12, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812927796
• ISBN-13: 978-0812927795
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,935,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read, if your serious about finding a good fit., March 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College (Paperback)

I've found "The Fisk Guide to getting into the Right College" the best college guide around and I've read them all. It takes you step by step through the intire college sellection process. The emphesis is on "The Right College" not the the most presitigious or the biggest. I especially liked the sections titled, "The Case for Small Colleges", "Public vs Private", and "Best Kept Secrets". The section on financial aid is particularly helpful.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Reference to Begin the College Hunt, June 12, 2000

By 

Renee Thorpe (Karangasem, Bali) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College (Paperback)

This is a good, short guide to US colleges.

Many of us parents may not want to admit that our college hunting began with a book that offers snippy little "bytes" about schools, and categorizes them under titles like "other well-known universities" but this book sure is helpful in the initial sorting process. Especially good if the student has no access to a college / guidance counsellor.

We started with this book, & ended up referring to it again and again. But other useful college selection publications are the annual Kaplan Newsweek college selection issue (out in summer), Colleges That Change Lives (Pope), and the ultra-conservative Choosing the Right College by William J. Bennett. (Latter is very useful even to Leftists because he evaluates schools for their political tendencies... a very good read)!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best at Explaining the Admissions Process, April 3, 2006

By 

CollegePlanGuy (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College, Second Edition (Paperback)

I'm going to agree with the other reviewers that this is an excellent book that is clearly and intelligently written. It stresses the "fit" of the college and helps both parents and students easily understand the admissions process. It also does a good job with explaining the ins and outs of financial aid. I feel some books like Get Into Any College by Gen and Kelly Tanabe offer advice that I wouldn't recommend and others such as How to Get Into The Top Colleges by Richard Montauk and Krista Klein are guilty of panicking students about the necessity of getting into a prestige school instead of the best fit. I feel the Fiske book helps families relax and feel informed. There is a self-assessment quiz at the beginning that does much to help students figure out what kind of college is best for them.

I have no complaints about this book at all, but if they wanted to improve it, they could expand their section on popular majors and the listings of schools that are strong in those majors. Fiske's other title, The Guide to Colleges, does a fairly good job of detailing each school's best departments, but it would be terrific to have more of that information here as well.

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