I still like Fiske a lot too. My student is in the final decision stage between three schools and in going back to read the descriptions, they’re pretty spot on accurate in terms of school vibe and approach to college education.

I also find some value in the Princeton Review summaries and lists. Of course you always take any list with a grain of salt but my student appreciated knowing how schools fared on dorms, food, classroom experience, quality of life, etc.

Another angle that’s really important to research in this day and age is the financial health of higher education institutions. For that I recommend Forbes, Moody’s, S&P, etc.

Fiske remains pretty useful as an overall guide to colleges. I wish there was a contemporary equivalent to The Official Preppy Handbook from the 80s. But publishers seem scared of opinionated takes these days, so there's nothing.

As for costs, every college has a Net Price Calculator on their websites. So you can get an idea from there. And those numbers are really variable if you're a normal middle class family. In general, the top private schools are cheaper than lower ranked schools. Don't be intimidated by a $95,000 price tag if you're middle class and applying to Princeton, Rice, MIT, Stanford, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Brown, Penn, Williams, Bowdoin, and so on. Tuition is basically free if your family earns less than $200,000. You just need to get in.

What I would encourage every young high school student to do is to do well on the PSAT. Study for that thing. There are so many scholarships that depend on that score. Do well on that and that's a free ride at Alabama, which is a perfectly good school. It will be similar elsewhere.

A really good middle class student is going to have all sorts of options that are affordable.

If you like podcasts I also have started to listen to episodes of The College Admissions Podcast. Skip the ones that are pushing services, but most are one on one interviews with admissions officers from colleges ranging from Duke and Notre Dame to Keuka College and St Peter’s University and everything in between. Flagships, SLACs, regional schools.

Some really specific tidbits about those schools. YMMV.

Thank you for the helpful responses on this thread. I’ve started to dig into the books, and it has helped in the areas I needed more info.

Although older we also liked Hidden Ivys. But also agree with Fiske - giving “If you like this school, you might also like this one” is useful.