College Guides Books

The Official SAT Study Guide

The College Board

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 109 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

NOT reccomended for SAT studying. 2 out of 5 stars.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book, obviously, is massive. I personally did not find almost anything in the whole of the book, very helpful. It is so wordy and vague at parts that it is very easy to lose interest. I highly suggest one of the test prep companies SAT books. I have ones from Kaplan and Barron's and they are much, much more helpful, and are more to the point.

a handy book 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

At first I honestly didn't want this book AT ALL! but my parents thought that I should use it to get me prepared for the SATs. I went through it and it really helped, it told me what the questions would be like and what to expect. It was pretty useful to me but what works for me doesn't neccessarily work for everyone else.

Editorial Review:

The Official SAT Study Guide is the only book that features official SAT practice tests created by the test maker. It's packed with the information students need to get ready for the exam. They’ll gain valuable experience by taking eight practice tests and receiving estimated scores. With 900 pages and 21 chapters, the book helps students raise their confidence by reviewing concepts, test-taking approaches, and focused sets of practice questions.

Fiske Guide to Colleges 2009 (Fiske Guide to Colleges)

Edward B. Fiske, Robert Logue

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

For more than 20 years, this leading guide to more than 300 colleges and universities has been an indispensable source of information for college-bound students and their parents. Hip, honest and straightforward, the Fiske Guide to Colleges delivers an insider's look at the academic climates and the social and extracurricular scenes at the "best and most interesting" schools in the U.S., plus Canada and Great Britain.

The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2009 is a tool to help you make the most intelligent educational investment you can. With The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2009, you'll get:

• The #1 Bestselling College Guide
• The guide that is most trusted by guidance counselors, students, and parents
• A book packed with tips from current students about the ins and outs of their schools Fiske's exclusive academic, social, and quality-of-life ratings for each school

"I happen to prefer the Fiske Guide for its combination of compressive facts and figures and personal anecdotes and descriptions of each campus. They may take a bit longer to read than a quick reference guide, but each entry leaves you with an indelible impression of the academic and social life at the college in question."

- Excerpt from The Truth About Getting In, by Katherine Cohen, founder of IvyWise

The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2009 also includes:

• Fiske's exclusive academic, social and quality-of-life ratings
• The 40+ schools that deliver the best education at the most reasonable costs
• Lists of each school's strongest majors and programs
• Candid tips from each school's current students
• A self-quiz to help understand which college is right for a student
• Vital information on how to apply
• "Overlap" listings to help students expand their options
• Selectivity statistics and SAT and ACT ranges

Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges

Loren Pope

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Insight Doesn't Come Easy, Folks 2 out of 5 stars.
29 of 35 people found this review helpful.

There may be a few families who'd be helped by this book, and if so I'd hate to deprive them of it. However, if your child goes to a school with a halfway knowledgeable college counselor, and/or if you have the skills to use the internet, you don't need it and won't find it enlightening. Like a Frommer guidebook, it makes its own recommendations out of date in this era of over-applications. Frankly, the two schools I visited with my junior son didn't much resemble the expectations I'd formed from the book. As previous reviewers have noted, the sampling is loaded heavily toward the northeast and overwhelmingly toward "small liberal arts" colleges, the very sort of schools that over-determined parents are likely to believe would be best for their child in terms of "personal attention" from faculty. A bit of swine-flesh before the pearl gatherers: A little attention from a great faculty member is worth more than a lot of attention from a middling one.

The bottom line is that neither I nor my son found the book stimulating or useful.

Editorial Review:

Now fully revised—the perennially popular guide to choosing the right college

Prospective college students and their parents have been relying on Loren Pope’s expertise since 1995, when he published the first edition of this indispensable guide. This new edition profiles 41 colleges—all of which outdo the Ivies and research universities in producing performers, not only among A students but also among those who get Bs and Cs. Contents include:

• Evaluations of each school’s program and “personality”
• Candid assessments by students, professors, and deans
• Information on the progress of graduates

This new edition not only revisits schools listed in previous volumes to give readers a comprehensive assessment, it also addresses such issues as homeschooling, learning disabilities, and single-sex education.

Best 368 Colleges, 2009 Edition (College Admissions Guides)

Princeton Review

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

College students (120,000 of them) reveal what life is really like at the nation's top schools. This must-have guide gives you college rankings like no other and covers all the essentials -- from academics to social life to financial aid, and everything in between. We also provide you with all the basics: admissions criteria, deadlines, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and more.

The unique ranking lists in The Best 368 Colleges report the top 20 schools in 62 categories. Based on how students at the schools -- the real experts! -- rated their colleges, the ranking list titles include:

·Professors Get High Marks
·Best Career/Job Placement Services
·Best Classroom Experience
·Party Schools
·Dorms Like Palaces
·Best Campus Food
·Most Politically Active Students
·Diverse Student Population
·Class Discussions Encouraged
·Best College Newspaper
…and many more!

The Best 368 Colleges also includes lists of great schools for 15 of the most popular undergraduate majors.

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing

Michael Harvey

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

excellent little book 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing goes over the fundamentals of good essay writing such as concision, clarity, flow, punctuation, and topic sentence for a paragraph and so on. It is an excellent reference book for college students and writers in general. The book however does not go into term or research paper writing.

Editorial Review:

Engagingly written and illustrated with scores of telling examples, this plainspoken how-to book for college writers identifies those qualities that most typically distinguish good writing from bad and provides practical measures for avoiding pitfalls.

Included are do's and don'ts for achieving concision, clarity, and flow, as well as pointers on using punctuation, writing gracefully, citing sources, and structuring persuasive writing.

Championing "the plain style" with a keen appreciation for the uses to which language can be put—including abuses to which it is prone—The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing is a guide that never fails to remind readers why good writing matters so much in the first place, in college and beyond.

The Insider's Guide to the Colleges, 2009: Students on Campus Tell You What You Really Want to Know, 35th Edition (Insider's Guide to the Colleges)

Yale Daily News Staff

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

For 35 years, The Insider's Guide to the Colleges has been the favorite resource of high school seniors across the country because it is the only comprehensive college reference wirtten and researched by students for students.

In interviews with hundreds of peers on campuses across the country, our writers have gotten the inside scoop on every school on topics from professors and campus life to dorms and student activities.

This 35th edition has been completely revised and updated to stay on top of campus trends and attitudes. Each school profile in The Insider's Guide cuts through the veneer of brochures and common stereotypes to reveal the college as it's seen through the eyes of its students.

This comprehensive guide includes:

- Revealing profiles of more than 330 top schools in the United States and Canada

- Essential statistics for every school, from acceptance rates to the most popular majors-

- Insider's packing list detailing what every college student really needs to bring

- College quiz that helps students find the type of school that is right for them

- FYI sections with candid student opinions and outrageous advice

Book of Majors 2009 (College Board Index of Majors and Graduate Degrees)

The College Board

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Editorial Review:

Whether a student is just beginning to look at colleges or has already enrolled, this is the book for them. The College Board Book of Majors is the most comprehensive guide to academic programs offered at four-year and two-year colleges. It describes in-depth 190 of the most popular college majors: how they are taught, what preparation students will need, career options, employment prospects, and much more. The profiles are followed by a directory of 900 majors at 3,600 colleges, showing which colleges offer each major and at what degree level--from associate to Ph.D.

This third edition of the Book of Majors features in-depth profiles of several emerging majors, such as computer-game design and emergency management; recent career trends information; and completely updated college listings.

College Handbook 2009 (College Handbook)

The College Board

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Editorial Review:

This is the only guide that contains objective information on every accredited college in the United States--2,150 four-year colleges and universities, and 1,650 two-year community colleges and technical schools. With its clearly laid-out entries and more than 40 indexes, the College Handbook 2009 is also the fastest, easiest way for students to narrow a college search and compare the schools that they're interested in. Tables of Early-Decision and wait-list outcomes show information that can't be found in any other guide. A planning calendar and worksheets help students organize their applications and keep on track.

Purchasers of the College Handbook 2009 qualify for a $10 discount on The Official SAT Online Course (TM), the only course offered by the test makers.

Law School Confidential (Revised Edition): A Complete Guide to the Law School Experience: By Students, for Students

Robert H. Miller

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 167 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Guide of What to Do Before Even Thinking About Law School 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Any guide to law school should start with the pointed questions of "why do you want to be a lawyer?" and "what do you think lawyers do?" Getting into law school (especially the "best" ones), making it through academically, getting a summer associate position and then a post graduation job can all be nerve wracking enough, but what then? Right, you are a lawyer and, unless your dad paid for school, your first loan payment is coming in 6 months and will be coming for the next 10 or 15 years minimum. In short, you had better like your job because you will be living it for a while.

I am a lawyer. I have obviously gone to law school, which I enjoyed and did not find stressful in the least. Being a lawyer is very different from law school. You law school students out there, you will learn more in your first 2 months of being a lawyer then you did all through law school. That stress you felt first year--thinking "how can I cram all this stuff into my brain and then spew it out again for a decent grade?" is nothing compared to the stress of answering to a client whose livelihood may depend on whether you got the answer right and who likely only gave you half the relevant facts. Those nights that you spent studying late into the night and thinking that all this hard work will pay off, embrace that life style because it will not get better and you will be required to account for every 6 minutes of your day. Being a lawyer is exactly that--a life style. It is not a job, not for anyone who is successful as a lawyer. It is not all court room drama and big paychecks and traveling to fun places. There may be some of that but it is also long hours reviewing tens of thousands of documents in a windowless room in a strip mall warehouse in Tulsa. And anyone who thinks things get easier when you make partner, think again. It gets harder because you don't just have to do the legal work, but you have to get clients and manage the firm too. The government attorneys may have it a bit easier on average, but I have certainly called one at 10 pm before and they have picked up the phone, so I wouldn't bet on it.

Also those of you who think that getting a law degree is a "gateway" degree to a broad array of job possibilities--wrong. Getting a law degree qualifies you, sometimes, to be a lawyer. There may be a number of people out there who have law degrees, and have a non legal job, but the high likelihood is that they had other qualifications that got them that job.

So all of that is a way of saying...understand what you are getting into because it can be a very expensive and unhappy mistake if you do not. Before you pay a dime to a law school, get a job in a law firm for the summer or a few months. See if it is something that you can enjoy. If you are 23 or 25, do something else for a year or two and see if you are thinking law just because you don't have a different idea. Law school will always be there. I went to law school when I was 31 and the timing was good because it was actually a nice break from work. I am generally happy in my law firm job and have been at the same place for 8 years. If you decide that law is your path, go for it, but try to avoid having the realization that it is not your path and that you are stuck with 250k in loans after your first year as a lawyer, which a very large number of people do.

Editorial Review:

Law School Confidential is written for students about to embark on this three-year odyssey by students who have successfully survived. It demystifies the life-altering thrill ride that defines an American legal education by providing a comprehensive, blow-by-blow, chronological account of what to expect. It arms students with a thorough overview of the contemporary law school experience. This isn't the advice of graying professors or battle-scarred practitioners decades removed from law school. Miller has assembled a panel of recent graduates to act as "mentors", all of whom are perfectly positioned to shed light on what law school is like today. From taking the LSAT, to securing financial aid, to navigating the notorious first semester, to taking exams, to applying for summer internships, to getting on the law review, to tackling the bar and beyond...this book explains it all.

A Is for Admission: The Insider's Guide to Getting into the Ivy League and Other Top Colleges

Michele A. Hernandez

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Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Plenty of college admission guides promise to help students crack the Ivy League, but few of these have detailed knowledge to back up their advice. Michele Hernandez, on the other hand, is the ultimate insider. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Dartmouth College, she also worked as Dartmouth's assistant director of admissions for four years. In A Is for Admissions, Hernandez describes the step-by-step process Ivy League schools use to evaluate an application. Along the way she settles some ancient debates, including the comparative importance of SATs versus high-school grades, public versus private high schools, and extracurricular activities versus part-time employment. She evaluates every possible factor affecting chances for admission, including special categories of students such as recruited athletes, minority applicants, and legacies. Most dramatically, Hernandez reveals the precise mathematical formula used by admissions officers to rank applicants. Using her guidelines, readers can calculate their own AI (Academic Index) and--should their scores come up short--learn ways to compensate in other areas.

Refreshingly, Hernandez helps would-be Ivy Leaguers keep their goals in perspective. She strongly advises against "grade grubbing" or "working for the grade." If you think attending a top college is the key to success, Hernandez cautions that the Ivies may not be for you. "If your goal is to make money, but you don't enjoy studying or reading, don't waste your time by trying to get into an Ivy League or highly selective college.... The beauty of an Ivy League/highly selective education lies in the intellectual atmosphere.... It does not lie in the prestige of having a diploma from Princeton or Dartmouth on your wall." Levelheaded and clearly written, A Is for Admission is the perfect guide for the student (or parent) who has his eyes set on the stars.