I’ve been thinking about my near future, and I’ve decided to get off of my lazy bum, and find a college to start looking into, and to pepper madly with letters begging acceptance. Can anyone recommend a site that has nice, meaty descriptions of colleges?
I thank you.
Your local bookstore should have lots of books on the subject. Look for something like “The Top 300 Colleges In America” for a list of good schools.
I personally have used The Fiske Guide and The Princeton Review. 
Your local library. Perhaps not the “site” you were looking for, but taking a trip through the reference section will probably produce all the information you could hope for and more. College rankings in subjects, their location, their average age, requirements to get in, etc. Several books on the subject, a reference librarian to help you, and possibly even applications right there for you to fill out and send off. Good luck.
I second the library suggestion. While it doesn’t hurt to buy some of the newest addition college guides if you don’t care about the price of them, the sheer amount of information at the library makes it more than worthwhile. Of course, I spent endless hours looking at what seemed like every college in america and still ended up going to Michigan.
The Princeton Review is probably the best. While there aren’t as many schools listed in there, I found their descriptions of the ones I checked out to be the most accurate. It’s well worth the 25 bucks or however much it costs.
That is, if you’re planning on liberal arts/sciences.
One of the sites that helped me the most was FastWeb, which allows you to search for information about colleges as well as scholarships.
You also might want to check with your guidance counselor to see if your state has a website devoted to college matters. For example, in North Carolina there is the College Foundation of North Carolina.
The rating list that gets the most media attention is the annual from US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, which is due out in a couple of days.
Although I read something recently that said that some schools were able to skew themselves higher in the results last year…the University of Hawaii and Ohio State are the ones I remember. So look out for those two, the cheaters.
Um, Ike, like you’d really have to go to great lengths to convince a teenager that college in Hawaii would be a good idea?
I recommend against any college that advertises on late night TV and offers a double major in truck driving and law.
I suggest choosing a school based solely on how much you like their fight song.
//College admissions counselor hat on//
Depends. Answer a couple questions and the college search gets relatively simple.
Many students can answer those questions before the college search even starts. No. 4 can be answered relatively easily - visit two small colleges and two big-ass state schools. If there’s only so much you can spend and you’re interested in a bigger school, the state U’s in whatever state you’re in deserve serious consideration. If cost isn’t a big concern (and/or you have scholarship and other financial aid possibilities), the search widens. If there’s a certain major you’re interested in, that may have an effect on where you need to search (i.e. the school I’m working at now is one of the few in the country that still offers Paper Making as a major).
As for the OP, Yahoo is good if you’re searching by state and want to look at individual college websites. Fastweb.com is good (and is also endorsed by the National Association of College Admissions Counselors).
//College admissions counselor hat off//
I chose my college (Illinois State University) b/c it was three hours from home, big, inexpensive, and had a ton of hot chicks walking around campus the day I visited. Fortunately for me, that choice worked out. Hopefully, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision!
Munch, our fight song sucks, but school band could play the shit out of “25 or 6 to 4” by Chicago.