In the three editions in which it has appeared during the last five years, the ISI college guide,
Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth about America’s Top Schools, has served as an essential reference resource for prospective students and their parents. Unlike other college guides, which too often read like paraphrases of university public-relations brochures,
Choosing the Right College is an independently researched and written volume that covers the things that matter most, such as core curricula, campus crime, student living arrangements, the quality of teaching and student advising, and freshman orientation. The ISI guide also provides specific advice on which professors to seek out—and which courses and departments to avoid.
Now an annual publication, the 2005 edition of
Choosing the Right College has been thoroughly revised to reflect the ongoing changes and the impact of significant controversies at each of 125 featured colleges and universities. The editors provide candid assessments of the state of each school’s academic curriculum, political atmosphere, and social life as well as telling campus statistics. They also tell students which courses they can take at each school to provide themselves with a true core curriculum—a course of study that used to be required almost everywhere but now almost never is. This unique build-your-own-core feature is one more reason that
Choosing the Right College has become the most valuable and trusted college guide on the market for the student and parent seeking a genuine liberal education.
What They're Saying...
"Choosing the Right College is by far the best college guide in America. It covers subjects not even mentioned in other college guides, but which are urgently important for parents and students to know about. This is especially so at a time when choosing the wrong college can lead not merely to disappointment but to disaster."
— Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institution, Stanford University
"At last, a college guide that has the guts to go through the hallowed gates to the heart of such issues as political correctness, campus polarization, student drinking and faculty standards at colleges big and small. This guide is a must for parents who care more about their kids' integrity than about their credentials."
— Dr. Laura Schlessinger, syndicated radio talk show host
"This guide to colleges is by far the most factually based of any I have seen. The editors have made a serious attempt to gain objective information on the colleges about which they report. This review is in striking contrast to the subjective opinions recorded by U.S. News & World Report."
— John Silber, Chancellor of Boston University
"If prospective students and their families want a critical look at what is taught at America's most powerful and celebrated schools, Choosing the Right College may be their only guide."
— World Magazine
"[P]rovides as comprehensive a catalogue of the academic skies as is anywhere available...Given the encyclopedic scope of this guide, one can only stand in awe of the consistency with which its editors have been able to grasp what makes each campus tick."
— Stephen H. Balch, President, National Association of Scholars
"A valuable tool that asks more probing questions and provides far more significant answers, than the typical college guide."
— Michael Medved, film critic and syndicated radio host
"A godsend for anyone who wants to know how to beat the academic establishment and actually get an education."
— National Catholic Register