Customer Reviews

The Fiske Guide to Getting Into the Right College

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

 

 

Let me depict the most outstanding features of this book by the worth of dollar amount to the students and the parents:
1) Chapter 6 - list of colleges - worths at least $20,000 dollars. The discriptions of the colleges are right on the target. It takes years of experiences and observations on each college to be able to provide such succinct descriptions.
2) Chapter 1 - concerning liberal arts education - worths at least $10,000. Liberal arts education is the true enabling education for everyone, whether you are a humanities or science major.
3) Chapter 2 - Sizing-Yourself-Up survey - worths at least $10,000 dollars, especially p. 14 -- p.17, which explains the results of the survey. When you have answered this survey honestly, you can then proceed to find the colleges that match you. This will save you not only months or years of wasted youth (when you are in wrong institutions or majors), but also tons of money. Much more importantly, This chapter emphasized the most important concept in this book: College searching is a matching process. You are not begging the colleges to accept you. You trying to find the ones that match you.
4) Chapter 7 - Where to Learn More - worths at least $2,000 dollars. The authors provide a good brief description for each college guide publication.

The other chapters in this book are good, but you can find them in other college guides. So, in this sense, they are not unique.

Having read through a lot of college guides and done a lot of research on colleges, I can say that this is an excellent, top-notch college guide. This is an excellent all-in-one college guide. The value of this book far exceeds its price. Highly recommended!!!

This book is a waelth of important information. I am sick of college rankings and this book is the antidote. It lists colleges according to the types of schools they are, their competitiveness, and their stregnths in various academic areas. This is much more useful than trying to determine which school is number 1 as opposed to numver 8. I really think that the way this section is presented can really help a student focus on which colleges he/she may want to investigate for a possible application.

There is good information on applications, interviews, finances, determining which colleges to appl;y to etc. An important decision a student must make is whether to apply early decision. This book is very helpful in understanding the early decision process and in detremining whether this woul;d be the best strategy in an individual case. SATs, ACT and preparation before taking the tests are covered. I highly reccomend this very useful handbook.

This is one of the most comprehensive, all-in-one college guides I've seen and it a very good starting point because it packs a lot of information into a concise, readable package. However, with a copyright date of 2002 it is time for an update. The SAT information refers to the "old" SAT and the scores are accordingly out of date. Because of the 2002 copyright date I was also suspect of the otherwise valuable list of other college guide book titles and websites. Nevertheless I found plenty of information, insights and advice that was worthwhile. The tone of the guide is practical and calm, and I think the Fiske Guide is helpful and a good resource overall.

As a parent of a hs junior, I found this book enlightening and wise. It not only outlines the search process but gives great reasons for not being swayed by the hype of "name brand" institutions. I highly recommend this book to parents and students before embarking on the college search process.