Customer Reviews

Students' Guide to Colleges: The Definitive Guide to America's Top 100 Schools Written by the Real Experts--the Students Who Attend Them

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been a professional college counselor for more than 10 years, and I can't recommend this book highly enough. It's an upstart title in the college guidebook industry - this is the first edition - but it has such a novel take on the process, and offers such innovative features, that I'll be very surprised if it isn't here to stay.

A colleague of mine recently said this book is the next best thing to spending a week on each college's campus. I usually shy away from cliches like that - but, in this case, it's very close to the truth. If you're looking at any of America's top 100 colleges and universities, I highly recommend it.

As a prospective college student, I have to tell you how much I appreciate Students' Guide to Colleges. It combines many of the best features of the Princeton Review and Fiske guides with much more comprehensiveness. I also appreciate that it is without any trying-to-sound-hip blather because these are not editor-interjected profiles, they're written by actual students. This is a great compliment--I have been looking at colleges seriously for about a year, and this is the best guide to colleges among the many I've seen. I also just read the Oberlin College profile in this book with an Oberlin alum and relative. She said that this was this most comprehensive and accurate Oberlin portrayal she's read in a guide. Among other things, she and I loved the different student perspectives and the unthinkable-in-previous-guides questions like "what aspect of your school would a prospective student not see on a college tour?" The guide's honesty also impressed me, as the Fiske guide lauded Vassar's "diversity," for example, where Students' Guide admits "Although Vassar likes to talk about diversity a lot, most students are actually wealthy and white." I am confident in saying that anyone applying anywhere from Hampshire to Harvard will find this book incredibly useful!!

-Josh

As a prospective college student, I have to tell you how much I appreciate Students' Guide to Colleges. It combines many of the best features of the Princeton Review and Fiske guides with much more comprehensiveness. I also appreciate that it is without any trying-to-sound-hip blather because these are not editor-interjected profiles, they're written by actual students. This is a great compliment--I have been looking at colleges seriously for about a year, and this is the best guide to colleges among the many I've seen. I also just read the Oberlin College profile in this book with an Oberlin alum and relative. She said that this was this most comprehensive and accurate Oberlin portrayal she's read in a guide. Among other things, she and I loved the different student perspectives and the unthinkable-in-previous-guides questions like "what aspect of your school would a prospective student not see on a college tour?" The guide's honesty also impressed me, as the Fiske guide lauded Vassar's "diversity," for example, where Students' Guide admits "Although Vassar likes to talk about diversity a lot, most students are actually wealthy and white." I am confident in saying that anyone applying anywhere from Hampshire to Harvard will find this book incredibly useful!!

-Josh

I've been researching colleges for the past 6 months, and only found Students' Guide to Colleges two weeks ago. But it is already, by far, my favorite college guidebook. It's just as (or more) informative as the other guides - but then it's also fun to read, and tells you what the other guides don't, like "What wouldn't a prospective student see on a campus tour", and "what wouldn't an admissions officer tell a prospective college student." I can't recommend this book highly enough!!

(...)
Also, that one reviewer, Lisa Stephens, made no sense. Her review hawks "How to Ace Your Way Through College and Still Have a Life" by David Kennedy" - and if you look at her history page, she does this over and over, negatively reviews books, and then hawks her own. Sorry for ranting about that, but her review is totally disingenuous, and it lies, and she's really doing a gross thing, putting down other books (in a way that doens't even make sense, cause this is a great book!) to promote her own book, or a friend's, or whatever.

WHATEVER!! I loved this college guide. Can't recommend it enough.

There's so much I loved about this book. The first page of every review does a great job of summing a school up: it offers all the pertinent statistics (when each school was founded, its location, phone number, email address, web site, how many undergraduates it has, how many graduate students, the cost of attending, the application deadline, and the early decision deadline.)

Then it has a great Selectivity Rating for each school. You always hear you should apply to Safety Schools, Target Schools and Reach Schools - the Selectivity ratings in Students' Guide make it easy to figure out which schools belong in which category.

It lists the Notable Majors and Programs at each school, so you can quickly see, if you're interested in majoring in English for example, which schools are notable for having that major.

Students sum up each school in five words. For example, Bard College students sum it up as "Hipster school for creative rule-breakers", and "Small, controversial, intellectual, true individuals". When you're looking at lots of schools, it's easy to forget which is which. These five words on the first page of every review help you remember.

Then, there's a grid which tells you the size of each school (small, medium, large), the location (urban, suburban, rural), On a Saturday Night, Students Talk About Academics (always, sometimes, never), nightlife (intense, moderate, laid back), political leaning (left, right, split), and diversity (high, medium, low.) Having all this information right up-front - particularly regarding night life, how often students talk about academics, and political leaning of student bodies - really help you quickly grasp a school's character, and see if it's right for you. Know that you're interested in small, liberal, very intellectual schools? This grid will help you figure out exactly which schools you should be focusing your attention on.

Then, there's a paragraph, "From the School", which shows you how the school markets itself. Which is interesting to see.

And, finally, there's a box that says "If You're Interested in Columbia (for example), you may also be interested in". This is great, because if you find one school you love, this box points you to others you may also really like.

And this is just one page, out of 7, that you get on every school!

I think it's really indicative of what makes this book great. There's just tons of new ideas in it, things you won't find in any other guide, and you can really tell the makers put a lot of time and thought into figure out how to make this whole college search process easier. I'm first finding this book now after a year of looking into colleges, and I'm so glad I did. I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone going through this stressful process!!!

I am embarking on the college search with my second son. Ive already done this once and feel fairly seasoned and maybe just a bit cynical about the proocess. I'm very familiar with college giudes and when I bought this book yesterday, along with a couple of other "guides", I wasn't expecting to see anything new. Fortunately, I was wrong. It is so refreshing to read such an organized, thoughtful, honest, and unique perspective! These guys have truly come up with something of value for students and parents. The market is flooded with over opinionated and under researched college guides; this one does not fall into either category. The "I Wish I Knew When..." section at the beginning alone is worth the price of the book. I haven't seen that much solid, valuable college advice in one place, ever.

What a great guide. It doesn't get more honest than this. I'm so impressed, I'm choosing a school in the next few months, this is really helpful.

And, because three students tell you about every school, you get all these very different perspectives on the same places, and you can really see what each school is like for different people.

To show you , here's some extreme honesty:

Colgate University: "The snow isn't the only thing that's white here. If you're looking for a school with a big minority population, try Howard or Morehouse. You just won't find it at Colgate. On the upside, if you're white and preppy, you'll get to surround yourself with 2,800 other people you probably have a lot in common with."

University of California - San Diego: "The admissions officers at UCSD probably wouldn't tell you that we don't have a football team. When UCSD was first opened, the university actively decided against having one because they wanted to be viewed as a serious academic institution. This seriously weakness school spirit, though, and means a lot of USD kids are seriously nerdy. On a tour, you'll rarely find kids playing soccer on the quad or tossing a Frisbee. Instead, you'll find students discussing Star Wars or blinking confusedly from the natural sunlight."

Hampshire College - "Students here are liberals, period. Maybe there's one Republican on campus, and I don't know why she's still here, we told her we'd cut out her tongue months ago."

University of Chicago: "The University of Chicago falls prey to the phenomenon that has been striking most private colleges across the nation - its student body is mostly composed of upper-middle-class white kids. I'm personally more concerned with the lack of economic diversity here than I am with the lack of racial diversity, though; the lack of racial diversity is a broader social problem, whereas the lack of economic diversity shows the school isn't doing a good job offering fair financial aid packages."

Brown University- "As everyone knows, Brown has no core curriculum. We have no requirements whatsoever outside of your concentration. You can even take a pass/fail option on ANY course at all. Some professors tend to get upset over these lax policies because they feel they create an atmosphere of laziness and entitlement. However, most undergraduates love these policies because we feel they create an atmosphere of laziness and entitlement. Er ... I mean ... they create an atmosphere of openness and academic experimentation. Yeah. That's it."

Cal Tech: "I'd describe the campus as somewhat left-leaning, but we're not really into politics. If anyone ever tried to start a protest, we'd let the angry, diseased lab monkeys from the biology department loose in their general direction. Angry, diseased lab monkeys can wreak havoc in no time at all. That would teach those protestors to care about whatever their issue was. Focus on science, people!"

Cornell: "Cornell will tell you students here don't drink much. "Most Cornell students drink one to three drinks, or no drinks at all, when they party." Sorry, Cornell, I don't think you're pulling anything over on 13,000 of the brightest young minds in the country with that one. Was I hallucinating the other night, or didn't I see three guys pass out while doing a beer bong? I'll tell you the truth, here and now, Cornell students drink. And drink. And drink. Bottoms up!"

Sarah Lawrence College "How would I summarize SLC in one sentence? Well, I feel it's my creative prerogative to protest a simple summarization of a unique institution that refuses simple stereotypes and politicizations. So, no. I'm not doing it. You don't get your one sentence."

This stuff is pretty incredible - and you get so many pages of it for each school. I'm a really big fan, cause I hate this process, and this is actually honest and fun to read.

The concept of a students' guide to colleges that actually uses students' insights instead of som old admissions officers' seems so basic. Yet it took these two talented editors to bring the concept to life.

When I was looking through college guides as a junior and senior in high school, all of the information seemed generic. This guide is a breath of fresh air -- and the best part is the incredibly well-rounded approach. For instance, "Students' Guide" uses perspectives from three diverse students from each school -- with varying majors, social niches, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This is a fantastic idea, because having ONLY fraternity guys or bookworms interviewed never gives the perspective from both sides of the spectrum -- and that leaves a flat impression of each college. This guide accomplishes what no other guide has: a quick, fun approach that is honest and straight from the students to you. I loved it!

The fact that the editors began creating this book as freshmen in college really demonstrates their insight into student life -- and also the need that high school students have for a real preview of the colleges they will be spending the next four years attending. I found that all of the other guides -- usually writen by peole who have not attended a lecture in over 20 years -- were far from reality (painting images of brick walls and ivy and GRE scores but little else).

"Students' Guide" is exactly what you should buy if you're trying to get an overall impression of the student and academic life at the top 100 colleges. The editors' questions for current students were great, ranging from "What would admissions officers NOT tell you on a tour of the campus?" to "Do students talk about schoolwork on a Saturday night?"

All in all, this is a great guide that has finally taken the right approach.

I am a junior in high school currently, and this has been my BIBLE for the year. It is clearly well-researched, well-edited, and very well-informed. It is from a perspective of current students, which is excellent because I am personally too shy to talk to random people on-campus when I'm visiting the actual colleges. While it does not cover every aspect of every college, it makes no claim that it does so and it certainly gets closer than any other college guide. I didn't buy any other college books, because it has been so helpful to me in my searches. This book has served multiple purposes for me: for one thing, it opened my eyes to some places that I thought I wouldn't want to look at, but which I'm now thinking I'd like to visit. For another thing, I always read it after I get back from a college visit, to compare what I saw to what other people who actually attend say about it, to see if what I was seeing was a fairly accurate representation of the school. I love the fact that I can read through three different student reviews and see which one would be the most like me--it is so helpful when weighing schools to be able to compare onesself to the actual students. This book has lessened the stress of applying to college immensely, and I recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone starting out on the Great College Search.

Just got this. I like that it's student-written, seeing multiple perspectives on each school. I'm getting a very clear picture of each school. I'd recommend this.