OurColony.net

outdated and overrated

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This book is pretty informative about the 368 "top colleges" that they reference, but I didn't see much variation from the 2008 version of the book! The fact that they try to make you buy a new book every year is kind of ridiculous. Plus, I don't really think 368 colleges is enough-- that's only about 10% of the total colleges in the nation. Your hidden gem college may not even be available in this book. I also think that the personal reviews of the college portion could definitely be expanded. I'd suggest using websites such as [....] that have information from the actual students who attend the school, as well as up to date information and over 3000 schools available. I just simply think that the print version of college guidebooks are outdated and overrated.

The latest update to The Princeton Review's top-notch, user-friendly guide to choosing a college

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The Best 368 Colleges 2009 Edition is the latest update to The Princeton Review's top-notch, user-friendly guide to choosing a college. Drawing its information directly from surveys of 120,000 college students, The Best 368 Colleges 2009 Edition compiles rankings of everything from offered financial aid to quality of academics, campus social life, and much more. Straightforward statistics concerning the student-faculty ratio, the composition of the student body, and more round out this solid reference especially recommended for high school seniors and anyone else trying to figure out which campus is best for them.

Good reference for finding colleges

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Good resource, although we did find it odd that Cal Poly at San Luis Obispo wasn't included.

Great help in the college search

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I used this book five years ago to figure out which college best suited me. There may be many colleges listed, and as I bought the book early in the 10th grade (I was dying to go to college) I did read basically every review, but you can also quickly narrow down the colleges that are best suited for you, such as by knowing that you want a small campus, liberal student body, and a high ratio of professors to students. I bought the book in my senior year as well and then passed the books on the underclassmen that I thought might make use of them. I loved the book, and it really help me, as a girl from Ona, WV, learn about schools across the country and pick the right one.

4.5 stars..... Essential tool for HS seniors

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Let me state upfront that our family has completed the college search process, I will be taking my youngest off to college in about 2 weeks. But when I saw this at my local library, I couldn't resist picking this up. The Princetown Review publishes a number of college search-related books, including the "Complete Book of Colleges" and this one. This book is essentially a distilled version of the "Complete Book", and frankly a lot more useful (but for people new to the college process, definitely check that out too).

"The Best 368 Colleges (2009 Edition)" (809 pages) is very similar to last year's edition. After holding the number of best colleges steady at 366 last year, this time there are 4 new "best" colleges and 2 that didn't make the cut anymore. Those new colleges are City University of New York Baruch College, Nazareth College, Prescott College, and University of Alabama at Birmingham. There is a fun-to-browse 62 lists of best/worst, such as "Most Beautiful Campus", "Students Study the Most", "Party Schools", and "Most Politically Active Students" (my daughter will be going to the No.1 ranked school on that list).

The best feature of this guide remains the 2 page layout for each of the colleges, with in-depth information on campus life, academic selectivity (the number of applicants, how many were accepted, and of those how many actually decided to attend), tuition and room/board costs, etc. Another aspect that is very helpful is the "Survey says" sidebar, in which the essence of the university is distilled from the college students themselves, and "The Inside Word" segment on how tough it really is to gain admission.

The proof is in the pudding: of the many college guides out there, my daughter spent more time with last year's edition than with any other. This book is not the first place to start the college search, but once your son or daughter has narrowed down his/her colleges of choice, and assuming those colleges are featured in the "best 368", this book clearly is the best resource, the last step before a campus visit, and can be used again following the campus visits. If I was forced to recommend only one book among all the college search guides, this book is it.