Best 311 Colleges, 1999 Edition

By John Katzman

What makesThe Best 311 Collegesthe most talked about college guide? *??We ask students (not just admissions officers) what colleges are like.??We survey 56,000 college students, and the revealing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375751661
• ISBN13: 9780375751660
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Princeton Review
• Length: 717 Pages
• Weight: 2.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.9" x 7.8" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

An excellent reference book for the college-bound

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 fr

Update on a valuable reference guide.

Last year I wrote an extensive review of the various college guides. Our daughter was then in eleventh grade and just beginning her serious consideration of colleges. Now she has heard from all her schools (accepted at 8, waiting list at 1, rejected at 1) and an update seems appropriate. The Princeton Review guide is probably the best condensed book for a quick overview. They have improved their format slightly from 1999, though most of the text of their descriptions is the same. However they do give a flavor for the political orientation, difficulty getting in index, academic prestige, student to faculty ratio, and quality of campus life.The Fiske guide is also useful, though my own view is that he tries to say only nice things about each school. The ISI Guide to Choosing the Right College has definite strengths and weaknesses. The strength or weakness depends on your philosophical orientation. It takes a center right political view and a traditional academic view. It therefore praises schools with a core curriculum and a minimum of political correctness and criticizes institutions which have few or no required courses and a left leaning tendency. However, they make their views fully explicit, so the reader can adjust according to their preferences. The greatest strength is that it names actual professors and lists their courses. Thus these can be avoided or sought after as the student sees fit. Most other guides stick to generalities and avoid specifics. Again I strongly endorse Marty Nemko's You're Gonna Love This College Guide. See my full review for details. The strength of this book is that it gets the student to think in terms of big versus small, urban versus rural, highly competitive versus high quality without cut-throat competition, etc. It really helped our daughter know what to think about on her tour of colleges.A few more tips. We found it extremely helpful to look at colleges during spring break of eleventh grade, and again in the fall of twelfth. The essays are VERY important. We are sure that our daughter got in to two excellent schools on the strength of her essays -- and indeed an admission officer from one of those schools specifically told her that after she was accepted. And do whatever you can to get an interview. We have no scientific proof, but it is simply human nature to feel more enthusiastic about a real person whom you have met than a mere bunch of papers. The schools our daughter got in to were all ones where she interviewed. The waiting list school was one where she did not interview. Draw your own conclusions. Good luck. We'll revisit all of this when our next child starts the process in a couple of years.

We bought a dozen college guides. This one is the best.

Searching for the right college is an overwhelming task. The Princeton Review guide is the best of several books we purchased because it is well organized and because it includes (sometimes uncomfortably) frank comments from students--not the admissions office spin on the school. Each of the featured colleges has a two-page spread in the book. Basic statistics are listed in sidebars on either side of the spread, so if your high school student accumulated only 1,100 on the SATs you can eliminate certain schools right away. If you prefer small schools, the stats show you school populations (with a demographic breakdown) so you can stay away from the large institutions where professors barely see the undergrads. Across the top of the page you find the address, telephone and fax nubmers and Web address. Tuition costs are easy to find in the sidebars. Some schools you're interested in won't be in this book, but most will, although there appears to be a clear East Coast bias. The editors are very honest about the process they go through to determine which of the 3,500 colleges and universities make the cut. Some are eliminated simply because they would not allow Princeton Review editors to interview students. What are they hiding? If you buy only one book to help you find the right college, this should be the one.