Using College Guides to The Maximum

There are various college guides in the market now such as The Best 371 Colleges by Princeton Review and Fiske Guide to Colleges. Every student, regardless of the type of the guide they are using, should consider following factors in these books.

Student to Professor Ratio

Note that each university and college is different in terms of sizes. The best way to judge the size of institution is to look at the student to professor ratio. With small liberal arts colleges, you will see something like 14 students to 1 professor ratio. For larger colleges, you may see a bigger ratio, but the overall ratio will be still small compared to those of universities. In contrary, some universities will tell you that the freshmen will be placed in a large auditorium with couple hundred students. The examples of these institutions are Penn State and UC's (University of California). So, this ratio determines how easy or difficult it is to meet the professors or whether you will be known by your own name or as the "girl who had a pink highlight and sat at the fifth row in the left side of the room."

Cost

This may seem like an obvious factor, but it is not. It is crucial to see if you can afford the college all four years while remembering that each year, the total cost will rise. Many students make a large mistake of picking the college by just focusing on the cost for freshmen year.

Let me put it this way. There is no point in going to an expensive and competitive college if you won't be able to afford it after a year or two (I do not recommend transferring unless it is really necessary. It's difficult for the student to adjust and causes a serious conflict in majors). It is more ideal to attend a college or university that you can finish in all four years for sure because college diploma will get you a job. On the other hand, one or two year most likely won't.

CollegeTown

Learn about the college town. If the college is placed in a large city, then you can easily buy anything you want even without a car, have a wide range of social life, and can apply for various internships and jobs while in school. The downside about the large city is that it will not always be safe, loud, and sometimes, unhealthy.

Going to a college in rural area will be quieter and safer, but there will be less number of things to do. Some of these colleges are called to be placed in "nowhere," meaning that there is nothing to do without a car. You can always find an intermediate by going to a college near large cities or placed in suburb.

Cautionary Factor

Be very careful about the type of the comments for academics in these guides. If the book says, "The student majoring in Economics said that the professors are widely accessible and nice," do not believe it word for word. I am not saying that the contents are false, but you need to be able to confirm what you read. You can do this by using the website called RateMyProfessors. This is an amazing website that the students put up reviews of their professors, and they are very frank, honest, and sometimes, even offensive (if professors read them).

College guides provide great information for many institutions, but remember that everything you read should be confirmed by the information available in the institution's own website. So, use them wisely and carefully!