Customer Reviews

Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges 1998 (15th ed)

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Rugg's Recommendations On The Colleges is now in its 17th edition. New and updated editions have been published every year since 1988 (every 2 years before that). The book's enduring popularity is testimony to its usefulness in the college search process, especially in the list-building phase. I buy multiple copies every year for my college counseling office and always keep it within reach when working with students. The book is a staple in high school guidance and college advising offices nation-wide.

The author is a former counselor and is well-respected by members of his former profession. He is also well-known for the seminars that he presents for counselors around the country. As a former counselor, Rugg knows what information students and parents need and he provides it. The foundation of the book is the 83 lists of colleges grouped by majors and divided into three levels of selectivity. The colleges on each list are "recommended" for each major based on discussions with students at the colleges and counselors across the country, and on Rugg's own research and visits.

To the author's credit, he does not rank colleges the way that the national magazine (the one with two names and the ampersand) does. This is also a factor in the respect that counselors have for his work. Also to his credit, he states that the "book is not perfect." No publication in this field is, although a couple of them would like us to believe that they are.

The book also includes other helpful hints and information such as a list of the 100 colleges that he hears the most nice things about, colleges that "offer students the best opportunity to maximize their education." It also includes a list of colleges that offer "wellness" dormitories. Rugg's approach encourages students to find colleges that will be good fits while smartly avoiding the "more selective the college the better it must be" approach that fuels the magazine rankings mentioned above.

Rugg's Recommendations On The Colleges is a helpful tool that contains good and current information. It has always been available through guidance catalogs and from the author. I am glad to see it becoming widely available.

Most of us know (or think we know)the top schools around the U.S. But if your high school student already has a solid interest in a particular major, this guide will open your eyes to possibilities you never knew existed. Rugg's extensive research finds those smaller regional and private schools which excel in a particular field but do not get the same publicity as the big name universities.

If your child is leery of taking on a campus of 40,000 students or doesn't want to be 2,000 miles from home, this guide will help you find outstanding institutions of all sizes and in nearly every part of the country. Our son will be pursuing some area of computer science, and we found many highly-rated schools in this guide which were completely new to us. What is also interesting is to look at the listings for some majors and see what "name brand" schools are missing from the list. Don't assume that just because a particular college or university is of general high quality that it truly excels in the field your child wants to study!

Give your college-bound child a REAL choice and eliminate much of the guesswork by using Rugg's.

I do agree that guidance counselors probably do need a copy of this book, and the author was wise to avoid the increasingly discredited practice of re-ranking schools each and every year. It's perfectly reasonable to list colleges in general selectivity categories, which he does, but more and more people are realizing that schools don't change markedly in the period of one year and the annual ranking lists are simply bad journalism.

However, I feel that this book is not as useful as Fiske's Guide To Colleges. Rugg's basically groups under each major a very long list of schools that are purported to be strong in that field. It's not a very stylish book, but it's effective and no-nonsense.

Here's the problem: If you pick any major (say art) and then find a school that is strong in that field (say Vassar) you're probably going to want to know a lot more information about Vassar and the only thing Rugg's will tell you is whether its student population is small, medium or large, and if you search through the back of the book you may find what other majors are strong at Vassar and their average SAT score. That's pretty much it.

Fiske also includes a similar list of majors and schools that excel in each field near the front of the book. Then each college is profiled in depth similar to books such as The Princeton Review Guide to Colleges. (Fiske is also better than Princeton Review for recommending strong departments.)

One thing to note is that Fiske covers about 300 of the most prestigious and best-known colleges which is great but not exhaustive. If the schools you're interested in aren't included in Fiske then Rugg's can probably still help because it lists about a thousand schools. Barron's Profiles of American Colleges also includes over a thousand schools and offers much more information on each school than Rugg's. However, with Barron's I do think you will need to at least browse through Rugg's because Barron's frequently only lists "most popular majors" as opposed to most recommended.

No pictures of students sitting on the grassy area in front of the ivy covered brick building. Plain and simple, who has the best major programs, period. Every colleges claims they have a fantastic math, art, etc... department. Rugg's is the book that gives you some idea of how good a certain major program is at a particular college. So if you are looking for a top physics program with a strong art program, you can find it. Ruggs is the go to book, it rates the major not the school's glossy brochure. Undecided? you can use Ruggs to find the schools that have strong programs in the 4 areas you are interested in so if your first major choice doesn't work out, you can change majors without having to change school. This book got us to our top 10 choices for schools based on area of interest.

We are particularly fond of this book because it provides a comprehensive review of universities and colleges based on majors, size, and geographic region. Even if the college applicant has a particular focus with his or her college selection, this book is still likely to open your eyes to possibilities you may have otherwise overlooked. This guide is very useful for its thorough research and inclusion of smaller regional schools that excel in a particular field but do not get the same publicity as the more prestigious national schools.

I'm sure this book fills a useful niche, but I did not realize before purchasing it that there would be no discussion of the programs listed at the various colleges. It is a book of lists, pure and simple. A good jumping-off place, I'm sure, but it tells one nothing substantive (besides the basic info about location, etc.) about the schools and programs listed other than that they "made the list." It's a reference book to consult at the library or school counselor's office, not a book to invest in as a college-bound student or parent.

"Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges" is the best selling book in the country for giving the student "a starter list of quality departments at quality colleges". This is the focus of the book. If one is looking for "college descriptions",you go a college book that focuses on college descriptions, not a book that focuses on college majors.

In the 25 years that my book has been available, very few days have gone by that a customer has not told us that the book is "extremely useful." If one reads the four page introduction, one will note that "schools should be added to the student's list by his/her counselor, from the counselor's own knowledge of the student, and knowledge of other colleges that might fit (match) the student. Fred Rugg, Author

Rugg's recommendations is a comprehensive list service, with accompanying statistics for the colleges. It is well prepared but BEWARE! This is a reference tool for high school guidance offices rather than a primer for parents and students going through the search process. The summary of the book is misleading and I purchased it, thinking it would help my son and I to become more familiar with the colleges.I gave the bok to the guidance counselor and he is using it as a reference.
I recommend the Fiske Book of Colleges, or a similar publication that contains very informative explanations for each college and also contains the statistics the Rugg's book contains.

Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges - 26th Edition
As a professional College Counseling firm, we have access to the finest resources available. We wouldn't be without Rugg's Recommendations! In fact this is the only College Guide that we routinely provide to our clients that are most serious in performing their due diligence in finding excellent-fit colleges for their students.

This book should be used extensively by all college counselors - whether they be in a public or private school, as well as independent counseling practices - and families with college-bound children.

We give this College Guide a "Thumbs-Up" and thank Mr. Rugg for his consistent excellence in providing such relevant and accurate college information year after year!

Since 1980, Rugg's college book has helped thousands of counselors, parents, and students narrow down the overwhelming number of college options for young people. The 100 plus lists are VERY substantive, and Rugg thins out the USA's undergraduate college departments to a top 12%. To state, as a reviewer from Northfield, Minnesota did recently (July 17, 2006) "that the book is basically about location, etc." misses 98% of the book. A five-minute read of the five-page introduction informs one of what is in the book: the "top" departments at America's top colleges. How sad to have missed all that.

The purpose of this book is NOT to present eight paragraphs about Harvard, etc. There are other guides out there for that purpose.