Books About College

The most commonly used resources by guidance counselors at HHS are:

Princeton Review's Best 371 Colleges

This book is made up of student surveys of current students at these 368 schools (the exact number of schools changes each year). There are two pages on each school, broken down in to the categories such as Academics, Admissions, and Student Life. For each college there is a short list of other similar schools, so that if you read about Grinnell College in Iowa and like it, you can then see that kids who apply to Grinnell also apply to Knox, Macalester, etc. and then read about those schools. This is a great way to build a list of schools.

This book really gives the flavor of each college, in addition to some basic facts about each. The most entertaining part of the book is the section of ranked lists at the beginning with lists such as: “Best Food”, “Dorms Like Palaces”, “Profs Suck All Life From the Material” and “Birkenstock-wearing, clove-smoking vegetarian” schools. Even if you don't care at all which colleges have the best library, it's helpful to look through the categories and ask yourself if that category matters to you as a prospective student.

Best 368 costs about $25.00 and is available at the Dartmouth Bookstore, as well as the Howe, HHS, and Guidance libraries.

Fiske

Similar to the Best 368, this book has 2-3 page descriptions of each college based on professionals who review and compare schools, as well as information gained through student surveys. They have “overlaps”, which are colleges similar to the one you are reading about. This book is a little more serious in tone than the Best 368, but has equally good information.

Remember that individual college websites are put together as recruiting tools by the college, so they are inherently biased (all the kids are smiling and happy, the weather is always beautiful, etc.). Books like Fiske and Princeton Review give you a more balanced view of each college.

The Fiske Guide costs about $25.00 and is available at the Dartmouth Bookstore, as well as the Howe, HHS, and Guidance libraries.

Rugg's

Each guidance counselor has this in his/her office. It is a list of colleges based on the quality of their academic programs. There are all of the more common majors, such as English, Math and History, as well as some more specific ones, such as environmental science, linguistics, and Japanese studies. Any one family might only need two or three pages out of this book, and some families might never need it because their child has no idea what they plan to study in college.

The College Board Book of Majors

Similar to Rugg's, but this book lists every college in the country that offers a particular major, not just the best colleges for any major. This book also has a one or two-page description of each major, including career fields associated with it, so it can help a student sort out which major fits them best.

There are many other more specialized books

available in our Guidance library and the HHS library.