Finding the College That's Right for You!

Palladino's book fills an important niche, especially for the majority of students who rank in the middle 50% of their classes. Each of the 150 colleges profiled alphabetically receives two-three pages of condensed coverage so it's easy to acquire a sense of what they each offer. Palladino's writing is clear and his descriptions are concise. "The Heart of the College" section on each school is the most worthwhile and enlightening. Here, Palladino attempts to capture the college's distinctiveness by focusing on culture, character, and the spirit of the faculty and students. Thus, readers can catch a glimpse of the elements that differentiate one school from another and is useful when trying to find schools that are "good fits." This is a necessary guidebook that immediately narrows the "search" for midrange students and is useful for identifying colleges that match what a student is looking for. Indices at the back categorize the 150 colleges by geographical and state location, size, and admissions difficulty, very helpful when looking for colleges outside one's local area. 5 Stars!

If you've looked through the Fiske or Princeton Review guide and realized that most of the schools listed are too selective for your child, this is probably the best guide for you. There is a little bit of overlap between the guides to the "best colleges" and Dr. Palladino's book, but not too much, so you will be getting different information. Even if you're insisting that your child go to a school listed in Fiske, if your child is a "mid-range" student, it might be good to see if Palladino lists the school in this book, as his choices are known to turn average students into ones that excel. The best thing about Palladino's book is his very intelligent system of determining how the schools were included in the book. He wants schools to be relatively small (under 7,500 students), have a good freshman retention rate (75% or higher), a good graduation rate (50% or higher), a high percentage of faculty with terminal degrees, an average class size below 30, the availability of "transition to college programs," free psychological counseling, a good variety of athletic and extracurricular activities, a good rate of students going on to graduate school, an impressive distribution of core requirements, and he prefers residential campuses over commuter campuses. There are even a few more conditions, and he defends his reasons for basing his inclusions on these factors very well. Because of his thorough system, I think parents should feel confident that the colleges he's chosen to feature are good ones. Further backing Palladino up is the fact that some of his choices overlap the less selective schools recommended by such experts as Loren Pope and Jay Mathews. There are a few schools in Palladino's book that might be too difficult for the average student, such as Elon University, but I feel he's nearly always accurate with his assessments. While I really do think there are some schools in Fiske that would accept the "mid-range" student, you will have a greater variety of choices in this book, and I highly recommend it. [email protected] (free educational advising available for economically disadvantaged students.)

Dr. Palladino takes us on a word tour of some of the country's finest sectarian and nonsectarian private colleges,- so clear in exposition that we feel we have been on a personal visit to each site. The student or parent reader learns a brief history of the college, the content of special programs, and the college's central academic focus. Descriptions of student life, athletic programs and other amenities round out each entry. The clear content of the book thourougly fulfills the promiose of the title. Superb! Neil R. Dauler-Phinney, Ph.D.