Fiske Guide to Colleges 1999: The: The Highest-Rated Guide to the Best and Most Interesting Colleges in America (15th ed) (Paperback)

by Edward B. Fiske (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
"Picking the right college ... is one of the most important decisions that any young person will ever make," says Edward B. Fiske, former education editor for the New York Times. College is a major investment of time, energy, and money, so it's important to collect as much information as possible to help you make the right choice. The Fiske Guide to Colleges 1999 is an excellent source of helpful information. Rather than trying to offer a comprehensive guide to the nation's colleges, The Fiske Guide to Colleges 1999 focuses on the "best and most interesting colleges and universities" and offers in-depth profiles supported by clearly presented statistics. Each of the more than 300 schools selected for inclusion (on the basis of academic strength, adjusted for geographical diversity and for a mixture of public and private institutions) is rated in terms of three major themes: academics, social life, and quality of life. Each review essay offers information relevant to both students and parents--for example, Warren Towers is considered the best dorm for freshmen at Boston University, the history department at the University of California, Berkeley, is "dazzling," and the best place to get food at University of Colorado, Boulder, is the Alferd Packer Grill (named after a man convicted in Colorado of cannibalism in 1883). In addition to the helpful individual reviews, the book contains an excellent "news you can use" section, which outlines the current trends in college admissions. Another nice feature of this annually updated guide is the new "1999 Best Buys" list--a list of 43 private and public institutions offering an excellent education at a "relatively modest cost." Three separate indexes help guide you to individual colleges, but the essays are entertaining and encourage browsing. With its clear layout and honest--and opinionated--writing, The Fiske Guide to Colleges 1999 comes highly recommended for anyone considering an extended visit to the Groves of Academe. --C.B. Delaney

Product Description
For seventeen years, The Fiske Guide to Colleges has been the indispensable source of information for hundreds of thousands of students and their parents. Candid, lively, and reliable, it speaks with unique authority, covering everything from where a school's history department ranks academically to where its basketball team ranks nationally, from which dining halls should be avoided to which professors shouldn't be missed. The result is -- as USA Today wrote -- the "most readable and informative" of all the college guides published. Based on surveys of thousands of students and administrators and thoroughly revised and updated every year, The Fiske Guide to Colleges answers the questions on the minds of all guidance counselors, prospective students, and parents. Included are:
-- application information -- where to get one, which schools have the longest and most difficult applications, deadlines, etc.
-- quality-of-life, academic, and social-life ratings for each school -- "party school" or "monastery"?
-- listings of each college's strongest departments and majors

Plus there's Fiske's exclusive selection of the forty-two schools that constitute 1999's "Best Buys" -- schools that deliver the best education at the most reasonable cost.

Some college guides offer merely pages of statistics, others just student opinions, and still others only the opinions of education experts. But The Fiske Guide to Colleges combines all three, so you get the full picture. It's the one authoritative book that college-bound students and their parents shouldn't be without.

The only college guide to get a top rating from American Bookseller

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 747 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 15th edition (August 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812930053
• ISBN-13: 978-0812930054
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,783,487 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

170 of 173 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable asset in the never-ending college search, May 14, 2000

By	Brett Emilio (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fiske Guide to Colleges 2000 (Paperback)

Being an 11th grader in high school and experiencing the college process firsthand, I have purchased various college guides in the past few months and have decided to enlighten other students and parents of my opinions regarding these books.

For students wanting to narrow down the list of over 2,200 four-year colleges, I strongly recommend The Princeton Review's "The Best 331 Colleges." This book provides invaluable information concerning some of the best institutions in the nation, covering crucial topics such as academics, student life, the student body, admissions, and financial aid. What I loved about this book in particular was its sincere and straightforward look at how the students feel about their college, since much of the information is based on actual responses from attending students. Contrary to other types of college guides, The Princeton Review gives you the essential statistics and information (median SAT scores, average GPA, percentage of applicants accepted, number of undergrads, etc.), and goes above and beyond that by including student reactions and descriptions which make you feel as if you were actually there. Of course, nothing can substitute an actual visit to a college, but the Princeton Review book is one of the best ways to start your college search and decide which universities appeal to you.

Another book that I purchased was the enormous 3,257 page "Peterson's 4 Year Colleges" guide. This book is adequate for finding copious amounts of statistics regarding every 4- year college in the United States, as well as a few international universities. The introduction is fairly informative, and the second half of the book provides brief 2-page descriptions of various colleges listed in the beginning of the book. This guide is ok for people who want to consider ALL their options, but it is probably not necessary at all if you at least have a vague idea of where you want to go and what you would like to do.

"The Fiske Guide to Colleges" is truly exceptional. Although it may not include every college out there, it does have over 300 of the best ones available. Similar to the Princeton Review's guide, Fiske gives actual ratings to academics, social life, and quality of life, but on a 5-star scale. What is helpful about this is that it gives the reader a modified perspective of a college which may have been otherwise thought of differently. For example, a college which has a five-star rating for academics may seem great to parents and students at first, but then you might realize that the quality of life and social rating might be horrible and students hate living there. This is not the case all the time, but it is a helpful warning that elucidates what exactly the life at a college may be like. Another great thing about Fiske's guide is that his college summaries really bolster his rankings, and he covers everything from the effectiveness of classroom academics to the abundance of frat parties.

The last guide I will comment on is the "Insider's Guide to the Colleges," which was written by actual college students. This book is pretty good and gives insight to quality of academics, student body, and social life, but mainly focuses on the latter. It is fun to read and has lots of humorous quotes from students at the individual colleges. The introduction was pretty good as well, and contains important information for people not too familiar with college applications or terminology.

Overall, I believe if you want to buy only one or two books, I would opt for either The Princeton Review's "The Best 331 Colleges" or the "Fiske Guide," primarily because of the books' forthright approach to assessing the colleges based on various factors, not just academics. And to all students applying to college this coming fall, I wish you all the best of luck.

103 of 105 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Says something good about every school. Read between lines., April 25, 1999

By	[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Getting your kid into a good college is a nerve-racking process for most parents. It certainly has been for us. We have found the customer reviews in Amazon very helpful. That prompts us to distill our ratings of the various guidebooks.

The best short reference on each college is the Princeton Review of The Best (311) Colleges. It gives ratings of academic quality, difficulty of admission, percentage admitted, etc. There is also a brief summary of college life and what each place might be looking for.

Peterson Guide is comprehensive, and has long write-ups for each school. There is a front section for each school, listed alphabetically within each state, and a back section with detailed profiles of selected institutions.

Fiske's guide is interesting, but he basically has something good to say for each school, so careful reading between the lines and for "damning with faint praise" is called for.

The Yale Insider's Guide is extremely subjective, with different students writing various reviews. We did not find it too reliable, except in conjunction with other books.

Likewise for Barrron's Guide to the Most Competitive Colleges. Recent alumni write of their (invariably positive) experiences. Take it with a grain of salt, or read carefully between the lines.

Choosing the Right College by ISN was extremely helpful. Some readers criticized it for being allegedly right wing. We did not find it so. Rather, knowing the point of view of the authors helped us evaluate their observations. Other books do not make their biases explicit. A feature of the book we found particularly helpful was the naming of excellent professors and departments in each college.

Antonoff's College Finder was interesting only in conjunction with other books.

Three books written from the perspective of college admissions officers were very interesting and helpful. They are The College Admissions Mystique, by Mayher, Getting In, by Bill Paul, and most of all A is for Admission by Michelle Hernandez. We strongly recommend that parents and the kids who are the applicants read at least one of these.

Another very helpful book was You're Gonna Love This College Guide, by Marty Nemko. It takes the student through the decision process of big vs. small, urban vs. country, elite vs. the level just below, geography, and so forth. That really got our daughter unstuck in her thinking process.

Loren Pope is another helpful author for those who think that not getting into Harvard is the end of the world.

Three books we did not find to be particularly helpful are Getting Into Any College, by Jim Good and Lisa Lee, The National Review College Guide, by Charles Sykes and Brad Miner (too out of date), and The Real Freshman Handbook, by Jennifer Hanson.

One book we found to be unexpectedly useful was Getting Into Medical School Today, by Scott Plantz, et. al. Even if your child is not interested in medical school, this book puts college in perspective for any post-college program.

We hope readers find our review helpful.

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Parent Review (Note: I am an adult, not a 12 y/o child!), October 14, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Fiske Guide to Colleges 2000 (Paperback)

As a parent of a college sophomore and a high school senior, I have used and appreciated Ed Fiske's books for several years. The task of evaluating and comparing different schools is a very difficult one, so both of his books have been wonderful resources. The Fiske Guide 2000 is dog-eared from the hours that my daughter and I have gone through it, and because we trust Fiske so much she will apply only to the schools he reviews. My older daughter attends and is greatly enjoying Beloit College. Fiske's reviews of Beloit and the other schools she had applied to were tremendously helpful in guiding her to that decision. My younger daughter (Julie) and I have visited over a dozen schools that Fiske has reviewed, and I have found his descriptions to be accurate and thorough. I would like to mention, too, that The Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College is a wonderful resource for students, but is even more essential for parents. It really walks you through the college decision process beautifully, and is a great complement to his other book.

All in all, I don't know what we would have done without the expertise of Edward Fiske. Julie will be choosing her college within the next 6 months, and I have confidence that her choice will be a wise one, in large part because of the guidance of Edward Fiske.