Fiske Guide to Colleges 2022 PDF Download Free

Paul Allaer “Fiske Guide to Colleges 2019” (858 pages) is a curious college-guidance/search book in my opinion. It lists the “best and most interesting” colleges in the country, about 300 out of 2,000+ four year colleges in the US (and even some Canadian and British schools) are written up.

According to the introduction, these colleges were selected on the basis of academic quality, geographic diversity, a balance of public and private schools, and schools that are currently popular for certain programs (engineering and technical schools, religious emphasis, etc.). Being from Ohio, I look at the list of 13 schools that “made the cut” and inexplicably Xavier University (a very fine Jesuit college here in Cincinnati) is left out of the book. Huh? While the descriptions give a good flavor of a particular college, there are essentials missing, such as the exact tuition/room/board (there is only a general 1 to 4 star rating on how expensive a college is, and even those are misleading, for example American University (the school of my youngest) is listed merely as “moderately” expensive for a private school (defined as “$42-48K for tuition”), which is off the mark! For the record, AU full-time undergrad tuition is $51K for 2018-19 and add another $14-16K for room/board and other miscellaneous fees. Also not helpful in my opinion is that the colleges are presented alphabetically, rather than by state, since most kids look at colleges in a particular state (usually their home state), although there is an index by state.

On the other hand, the descriptions of the schools are oftentimes right on point. Check the first sentence on American University (the college of my youngest): “If the odds to enter Georgetown are against you and you can’t see yourself on GW’s highly urban campus, welcome to American University.” That is EXACTLY what happened to my daughter: not admitted to Georgetown, admitted to GW and AU, but turned off by GW’s urban campus and instead charmed by American’s idyllic campus, hence AU. (and, as this book notes, “AU is one-third smaller, and now more selective, than GW”). The descriptions of the school my son attended here in Ohio are also on point.

When my daughter was simply looking to get basic information, she did not spend a lot of time with this book. As she narrowed her choices, she did read up more on her pool of colleges in this book. Bottom line: if you are at the very beginning of your college search, this is not the book to start with. For that I might instead suggest “The Complete Book of Colleges” issued by the Princeton Review, “College Handbook” issued by CollegeBoard, or “Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges”. On the other hand, The “Fisk Guide to Colleges” (which really should be titled “Fiske Guide to Select Colleges” or something like that) is instead more appropriate/helpful to get a second (or third) opinion once your child has narrowed down his/her selection of colleges of interest (assuming of course it made the Fiske cut of 300).”

Brian R. McElroy “I’m a Harvard Grad (class of ’02), professional test-prep tutor and college consultant based in San Diego, and I give this book my qualified recommendation.I’ve been using the Fiske guide to Colleges with my students for over 10 years now. Although it’s not my favorite college guide (that honor goes to Princeton Review’s College Guide The Best 380 Colleges, 2016 Edition (College Admissions Guides) ), the Fiske guide is still helpful and worth checking out for its unique perspectives.

However, be forewarned that the Fiske guide is not exactly an unbiased, realistic source of information. If you’re looking for honest criticism of colleges as well as glowing praise, then don’t bother looking here–it makes every college look great. Yes, student interviews are included, but they are overwhelmingly positive–it’s almost as if these entries are extensions of the admissions department from each school. The most negative kind of comments you can find are those such as “classes are demanding” and “this school is for people who want to make a lot of money after college.”

If you’re like me, then as a college-bound student (or the parent of one) you don’t just want to read the good news about your prospective schools, but the bad news too. If the dining hall food is lousy, the dorms are dreadful, or the town is not college-friendly, then this is something we deserve to know, rather than have glossed over in a sea of overblown praise. Look elsewhere for this type of critical information.

Here are the statistics provided by the Fiske guide:

Website, Location, Public/Private, Total Enrollment, Undergraduates, % Male/Female, SAT Ranges, ACT Ranges, % Financial Aid, % Pell Grant, Expense (they use categories, but why not just provide an exact full tuition cost?), % Student Loans, Average Debt (again categorized instead of a dollar amount), Phi Betta Kappa (Yes/No), # Applicants, % Accepted, % Enrolled, % Grad in 6 Years, % Returning Freshmen, Academics (rating), Social (rating), Quality of Life (rating), Admissions Phone #, Email Address, List of Strong Programs, Application Requirements.

I wish you the best of luck with your college search!”