Good College Research Books to Get Started

[Anonymous]

We are at the start of this process and need resources to prep.

Back in the 90s, I relied heavily on research from a book that had profiles of every US college/university. Admission stats, tuition, number of students, and then a narrative description of the school.

Is there a book like this for this era? Yes I could generate one using AI but looking for an already vetted resource.

Secondly, how do you strategize financially? Beyond just a 529, are there good resources on likelihood of scholarships, availability and rates of student loans, etc?

Thank you in advance for reserving your snark. Feeling pretty overwhelmed at all the available info.

[Anonymous]

^^correcting this a bit. Besides regularly making 529 contributions, how can I assess what we are likely to be on the hook for in terms of college expenses, and how much will be available via low interest loans or scholarships?

[Anonymous]

Fiske Guide to Colleges

[Anonymous]

Get the most recent Fiske guide, it analzyes and summarizes hundreds of colleges on a set of criteria and also has a small amount of guidance on how to consider types of schools, i.e. small, medium, large. My DC's copy became well worn, highlighted etc-very helpful to have a physical summary to refer to rather than online at various points.
As to the financials the best information is from the net price calculators. There is a general one available through the college board but eventually you need to check the individual ones that each college has on their website as there is variability in terms of which assets they consider (some consider all of your home equity, retirement accounts etc).

[Anonymous]

First read Jeff Selingos’s books on how the present system works and what some general strategies are.

Learn the lay of the land first, browse schools second.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^correcting this a bit. Besides regularly making 529 contributions, how can I assess what we are likely to be on the hook for in terms of college expenses, and how much will be available via low interest loans or scholarships?

Each school has a net price calculator. Some also have scholarship tables.

Fed loans are only 5500 1st yr, 6500 2nd & 7500 each 3rd & 4th. Beyond that, it’s private loans so you’ll have to research that separately, I don’t think any are going to touch what a 90s, early 2000s grad would consider “low” (mine were around 2%?)

[Anonymous]

As others have said, I think Fiske is really excellent. Pay attention to their various ratings for academics (pens) and quality of life.

I also thought Colleges Worth Your Money was a good aggregation of data.

Fiske, at least — but maybe CWYM as well — will be at at least one of the branches of your local library. If you have time to track it down, it could be worth going by to check it out in person. Even if it's a few years old, the content doesn't change _that_ much from year to year.

[Anonymous]

Definitely agree with the suggestion to read the recent Selingo book first. I have read it.

Nothing is the same as the 90s so it will give you an update.

[Anonymous]

The Selingo books are excellent and both are worth your time. His "buyers and sellers list" is helpful for beginning to understand which schools will (potentially) offer merit aid and which absolutely will not. The Price You Pay for College by Ron Lieber is another great one. Finally, learn how to find and read a school's Common Data Set (CDS). It's almost always available on the school's website. Many websites aggregate this data, but some are more recently updated than others, and once we got serious about specific schools, we found it easier to just go directly to the source.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Definitely agree with the suggestion to read the recent Selingo book first. I have read it.

Nothing is the same as the 90s so it will give you an update.

Which Selingo book? Who gets in and why or the more recent one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely agree with the suggestion to read the recent Selingo book first. I have read it.

Nothing is the same as the 90s so it will give you an update.

Which Selingo book? Who gets in and why or the more recent one?

I would start with the new one, “Dream School.” It’s more up to date and more a survey of the whole landscape. “Who Gets in and Why” is more about what exactly the application should look like to get into a particular kind of highly selective school that uses holistic admissions.

[Anonymous]

CTCL

[Anonymous]

Fiske is useful in part because it's somewhat opinionated. My student complained that every college sounded the same; Fiske does try to distinguish them, explaining what makes one school slightly different from similar ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fiske is useful in part because it's somewhat opinionated. My student complained that every college sounded the same; Fiske does try to distinguish them, explaining what makes one school slightly different from similar ones.

Fiske is more useful for small schools than for big ones, imho.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CTCL

I feel like CTCL is out of date. Seemed relevant and I tersting 4 years ago but a good number of schools are facing some financial challenges. The premise is good and you might find some nuggets to apply. Seems Dream Schools is the updated version in a general way of thinking about schools.