Customer Reviews

US News Ultimate College Guide 2006

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

 

 

There are many, many college search guides and books out there. The Princeton Review has a couple of good ones. But if you are at the very beginning of the process for your son or daughter (as I am currently with my daughter), you should absolutely take a look at this book.

"Ultimate College Guide (2006 Edition)", issued by US News & World Report, "the leader in college rankings", is a mammoth 1739 pager, which basically lists all colleges and universities alphbetically, state by state. This book is not a subjective evaluation on which schools are "the best", but rather a "just the facts, ma'm" type of book. It provides detailed information on everything from tuition and room/board costs, how many applied, were accepted and actually enrolled, what the average scholarship grant is, etc. etc. My daughter, who is starting her junior year when school resumes after the summer, has spent a lot of time flipping through this book (which she has not done with some of the other college guides we've gotten).

As to those rankings, if you think they don't matter to schools, think again. We recently did a campus visit and tour of Vanderbilt University. In the presentation, the Vandy rep highly touted the fact that Vandy's ranking in the last couple of years has risen from 21 to 18, and hoping to crack the top 15 within 3 to 5 years. We later checked it out in this book, and yup, there it is: ranked 18 among National Universities...

The new 2007 edition of this book comes out in October, and we'll probably check that out as well, just to get updated numbers on tuition and room/board expenses. Meanwhile, the 2006 edition will do. Highly recommended!

As someone who has been through the process, personally and for children and nieces and nephews etc, I have this advice: Get an encyclopedia guide for colleges. There are a few great ones and each has strengths over the others. But, basically each is good enough and complete enough where owning one will do the trick. Your choices are Fiske Guide to Colleges 2007 (Fiske Guide to Colleges), Best 361 Colleges, 2006 (College Admissions Guides) and this book. You must have one!!!!

Then, if you want to learn more about schools and the process of college -- and believe me it has drastically changed in even the most recent decade -- buy any one of the following: Colleges That Change Lives : 40 Schools You Should Know About Even If You're Not a Straight-A Student; A Is for Admission : The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges (Paperback);The College Admissions Mystique (Paperback) and Pope's classic Looking beyond the Ivy League : Finding the College That's Right for You; Revised Edition (Paperback).

That list is all you need. Avoid the "How to Write an Essay that Gets You Into Harvard Even Though Your Grades and Scores Stink" books; avoid the "I Can Get Anybody In" books, avoid the "This is the Trick to Making Up for the Last 4 Years of Slovenly Laziness" books.

In the end, you will realize that you will constantly go back to the encyclopedia college guide as it is there where flashcard fast facts often accurately depict the social and other aspects of the school which "make or break" your child's decision in applying to that school.

If you choose this encyclopedia -- it will be money well spent. It has as many if not more details than the others and offers some insights into the character of the schools: something which the other encyclopedia college guides also provide -- but in a different manner.

This is especially helpful for my son and I trying to determine the colleges that will best for him considering every aspect.

Thanks.

Jim

Very good alternative to the Barrons and Princeton Review books. Great and useful rankings. Very relevant advice and supplemental features. Definitely the #1 college guide, but b/c there was no CD-ROM that I thought would help, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.

Good book. Almost too much information. Can be confusing if your just searching for a college without prior direction