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Have any parents or students ordered any of the College Prowler guides? We've already reviewed most of the "big books", and briefly visited the schools before even applying (during a summer trip, which we know limits the true feel of a school). We don't have the time or finances to visit again, before a decision is due May 1. Not knowing anyone who went to most of the selected schools, we thought perhaps ordering 4 or 5 of the College Prowler series might be worthwhile. However, in reading some of the sample comments, they too appeared very generic, and could almost apply to Anyschool USA.
Are they helpful?

By Kissy (Kissy) on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 09:43 am: Edit

Early on, my D ordered some of the college Prowler Books. They were somewhat helpful as far as describing campus culture in the eyes of the students. But, after reading a handful, I began to recognize certain descriptions and text that was reappearing, verbatim, under different schools. I guess one can draw different conclusions from that.

The collegiatechoice.com videotapes were helpful and they're only $15 each. They don't replace a campus visit but take you on a student-led tour and we found them helpful in narrowing down schools on D's preliminary list. If you didn't have the time to do campus tours while visiting the schools, you might find these somewhat helpful.

We found we preferred reading comments on studentsreview.com, epinions.com, and the PR student comments to College Prowler. Although one has to take some of the comments with a grain of salt, you can often times see common threads woven through the comments. Plus, they're free!

By Thumper1 (Thumper1) on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 10:01 am: Edit

Some schools also have videos that they will send if you request them. And some schools have excellent virtual tours on their web sites.

By Matth (Matth) on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 10:02 am: Edit

Most college websites that I've visited recently have virtual tours which can give a pretty good idea of what the campus is like. Nothing beats a personal visit though.

By Chrisd (Chrisd) on Tuesday, February 17, 2004 - 02:31 pm: Edit

We were able to check a lot of the collegiate choice videos out from our public library, no cost involved.

By Wishiknew (Wishiknew) on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 11:00 am: Edit

We got some of the college prowler guides and they were okay, but just okay. I don't think they are worth the money, especially when you include shipping. As kissy alluded to, too much reptition between schools to really be individually researched at each campus - exact phrasing and same quotes from students in more than one book. Also, data in books was three or four years old so I feel they don't update at all. I don't think we learned anything from them that we hadn't gotten from other more comprehensive guides. Good idea but I think the people who run this are beter at marketing than anything else.

By Parisfashion (Parisfashion) on Wednesday, March 17, 2004 - 01:37 pm: Edit

I ordered 3 and did not notice any repetition of quotes at all. I did see a lot of contradiction between students and I did think their grading was rather harsh though.