College Admissions Guides 2012 Edition

The Best 376 Colleges, 2012 Edition (College Admissions Guides)







Authors Princeton Review

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Product Description
*DIRECT QUOTES FROM STUDENTS that give insight into each school's unique character, classes, financial aid, social scenes, and more

*ONE-OF-A-KIND RANKING LISTS that reveal the top 20 colleges in 62 categories based on how students rated their school's dorms, professors, food, athletic facilities, and financial aid

*DETAILED ADMISSIONS INFORMATION that gives tuition, application criteria, deadlines, student to faculty ratios, graduation rates, and the most popular majors

*BONUS FEATURES like the "100 Best Value Colleges List," plus unique ratings with all 376 schools scored on Financial Aid, Quality of Life, Fire Safety, Green Ratings, and more.

Product Details
For students:
1. Work hard to get good grades and good test scores. They are important both for getting in to colleges and getting financial aid from them. Take as many AP courses as you can. Admissions officers like to see you've taken challenging courses, plus high scores on AP exams can earn college credits, thus saving on tuition.

2. When winnowing your hit list of colleges, don't make the mistake of picking schools only by their academic reputations. Get information about the campus culture, the student body, the town, the majors offered.

3. Never cross a school off your list because of its sticker price. More than 70% of students get financial aid and with aid it can cost less to go to a private or expensive school than a public or inexpensive one.

For parents:
1. Relax. There are hundreds of great colleges out there and the majority of students get into their first or second choice college. Be as supportive as you can of your child, and when it comes to dealing with the schools, let your child make the calls and write the letters, etc.

2. If you are hoping to get financial aid, learn all you can about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) well before you begin filling it out, ideally months before. The FAFSA is a form all aid applicants must submit and your /your child's answers on it are used to determine your "EFC" (Estimated Family Contribution) – that's what the colleges will expect you "pay" out of the family coffer. Our annual book, Paying For College Without Going Broke, has detailed information on this and is the only annual guide that gives people line-by-line advice specifically on completing the upcoming year's FAFSA form.

# Paperback: 864 pages
# Publisher: Princeton Review; 1 edition (August 2, 2011)
# Language: English

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Reviews


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), up-to-date tuition and room/board costs (I checked the numbers of the college that my daughter is now attending, and they are accurate), 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 when all is said and done.

This book is very helpful and serves its purpose. The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I wanted to see each individual schools ranking. It did have the top 50 public and private schools in no particular number order just alphabetical. But I would recommend it to those looking for more information on a college they would like to attend or those just looking for information on a college. The book has feedback from students and is accurate.

The other strength of this book is it draws attention to the strong financial aid programs of most private colleges. Few parents or high school students know that the average student loan debt of a Princeton graduate is LOWER than the average student loan debt of a graduate from the typical "Big State University". The fact is, for high school students ranking in the "Top 10%" of their high school graduating class and scoring in the top 10% of the nation on the SAT test and the ACT test, hundreds of private colleges will provide scholarships and grants that make the "net" cost of a private school education less than that of a typical public university. And, many private colleges make a commitment to meet the financial aid needs of EVERY student they enroll.