Best 361 Colleges- 2006 (Best Colleges) Description:

Best 361 Colleges, 2006 (Best Colleges) review:
2 stars (Did anyone fact-check this book?) - I just received this book. The second school profile I turned to (Stanford University) was completely botched. While the narrative text seems to be about Stanford, the sidebars full of statistical information is obviously not related to Stanford. I have no idea what school it belongs to - but it lists Stanford as a "public" institution with an in-state tuition of just a few thousand dollars annually. I wish. Lucky for me I knew enough about the school to recognize these patent errors.



Now I am left to wonder what other information in this book is completely off the mark? Everything else I have read seems to fit what I know about the schools, but I don't know that much about many of the schools reviewed.
5 stars (Get The Normal Stuff, then Ask the Students) - The nice thing about this book is its philosophy of asking the students at the schools to rate the colleges they attend. That way you get the low down on things like the quality of life, cafeteria food, social life, political leaning, all in all some 60 categories. That's in addition, of course to the standard information that you'd get from the school itself like admissions criteria, deadlines, phone numbers etc.



You've got to enjoy some of the categories in which colleges are ranked: Under Politics:

Students Most Nostalgic for Ronald Reagan

Students Most Nostalgic for Bill Clinton

Students Most Politically Active

Election? What Election?



Under Food:

Best Campus Food

Is It Food?



There are about 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States. Selecting the 361 to feature here is a combination of science and art. At the top is certainly a set of schools like Harvard or Stanford that will be on any list. As you get down into the hundreds there is more choice. After a while geographic diversity, rounding out the variety eventually has to get down to a feeling that we want this one more than that one. You may disagree, but this is the editors choice of the top 10% of the schools in America.



Easily one of the best college reference books.
2 stars (Same old, same old) - I think that this book is, well, too full of receycled information, myths, stereotypes, and other questionable descriptions. If you want hard data - go the internet, preferably individual school's web sites. If you want a comprehensive directory to colleges, Barrons is better.