Product Description

This valuable resource includes information on every accredited four-year undergraduate institution in the U.S. and Canada -- more than 2,500 institutions all-together! It also includes detailed two-page descriptions written by admissions personnel for nearly 1,000 colleges. College bound students and their parents will be able to research colleges and universities in regards to setting; enrollment; entrance level; academic programs and degrees awarded; entrance requirements and application procedures; tuition, fees, and housing costs; student/faculty ratios and campus life; and contact information.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16952 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 2832 pages

Customer Reviews

Major overhaul in presentation (but not substance)
My youngest just started college a few weeks ago, so I'm officially done with the college-search process but when I saw this at my local library, I couldn't resist picking this up out of curiosity, and imagine my surprise when I flipped through this.

"Petersen's Four Year Colleges - 2009 Edition" (2,897 pages--it should be sold "by the pound"!) is essentially 2 books in 1. On the one hand there are the 'hard cold facts', presenting a summary of about 2,200 colleges around the US. On the average, all colleges get about half a page description. Very helpful is that the colleges are lumped state-by-state, because, let's face it, most college students remain in their home state. The other part of the book is a more in-depth (two pages) profile of about 1,000 colleges. It is important to understand that those in-depth profiles are NOT written up by the book's editors, but instead by the colleges themselves (and the colleges have paid for this placement). Thus, a 2 page profile on GW and American, but not on Georgetown. The HUGE difference with earlier editions is that these college-provided profiles follow immediately after the state-by-state summaries of all the colleges.

I found the book more useful that my daughter did, when we used this. For one, because the book is so huge and outright heavy, it's not user-friendly from that perspective. That said, there is no denying that there is tons of great information in this book, including at the front (in earlier editions if was at the end) of the book 200 pages of colleges by major (which is VERY helpful if you are into a specific area of interest--as an example, you can major in "Textile Science" in only 2 colleges in the country), as well as by entrance difficulty and cost ranges. Another reason I like the book is that for most colleges it does have the latest (08-09) figures for tuition, room and board, and other miscellaneous charges. Hence I read that the total cost for attending GW (where I went to grad school) is now over $50,000. PER YEAR. Unbelievable.

Ultimately, this is a book to get when your son or daughter is at the very beginning of their college search and is simply looking to get some basic information. On that level, the book performs well. But after the initial looking around, there are other resources that should be checked out, such as the Princeton Reviews 2009 edition of "The Best 368 Colleges".