Guides to colleges tend to convey either statistical reportage derived from the college itself or anecdotal subjectivity provided by the school’s students and other constituencies.
The Barron’s Guides lean strongly in the first of these two directions.
You get information on the demographics of the student body, admission percentages, faculty qualifications, tuition prices and room and board (sometimes out of date or rounded down by the time it hits these pages), average SAT and ACT scores, and a ranking provided by Barron’s or its suppliers (most competitive, very competitive, etc.). After using Barron’s and another couple of guides with my two college-bound sons, I believe the competitiveness ratings tend to be generous. Many schools are rated surprisingly high and there is no category entitled ‘You’d have to really hate your child to send him to this joint.’ We all know there should be.
There is also information on international students, disabled students, campus security, and similar categories.
You get a lot of good data here. What you don’t get is color commentary. For that, you’ll need to make a campus visit or buy a guide like the one published by the Princeton Review. It rates fewer arguably more select colleges and universities, whereas Barron’s attempts to be exhaustive on a state-by-state basis.
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