College admissions books recommended by Correct College Counseling

Books That Help Guide You Through The College Admissions Maze

The following is a list of recommended books to help you with finding, applying to and selecting the correct college for you.

College Search Books

Fiske Guide to Colleges

This guide offers much insight into the atmosphere and environment at a few hundred of the top colleges in the U.S. and Canada. It's information is based on survey responses from actual students at each institution.

U.S. News and World Report Ultimate College Guide

This reference includes information on thousands of colleges in the U.S. Lots of easily indexed information and contact information. Up to date listing of web sites, phone numbers as well as key facts about tuition, acceptance rates, selectivity and even proportion of students who borrowed money to attend.

Choosing A Career and Major

The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore

This book is an excellent guide to the career selection process. It helps you to do lots of self-exploration exercises aimed at helping you discover the career that fits you best. It also contains great advice on how to make decisions about anything in life and how to get things done by prioritizing and turning goals into attainable projects.

What Color Is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles

This work is a practical how-to guide for anyone looking to choose or change careers. It, too, offers you ways to learn about yourself so that you can match up your favorite skills with your interests in a career that will satisfy your needs. It's a little harder to follow than The Pathfinder, but it offers outstanding strategies for finding and getting the right job for you after you have decided on a career path.

Do What You Are by Paul D. Tieger and Barbara Barron

A valuable resource to help identify your personality type and career options that fit who you are. It offers lots of insights into actual careers and the types of people that are attracted to various jobs.

Second Acts by Stephan M. Pollan

Written to help people looking to change careers, it can be a good tool for students looking for where to begin, too. It offers personal success stories of how different folks used the advice given to identify what they were most passionate about and how to find a career that fit those passions.

College Admissions Process

The Gatekeepers by Jacques Steinberg

The author "rides along" with an actual college admissions officer from a highly selective college in the Northeast. You read about actual admissions decisions and how they are reached. Not a how to book, per se, but can give you a peek at how competitive the admissions process is and how your application will be reviewed.

Harvard Schmarvard by Jay Mathews

A book that offers interesting facts and advice about not necessarily choosing only an Ivy League institution but working to find the college that is best for you. One of the most straightforward and useful books out there on how to approach the entire college search and college application process.

A Is For Admission by Michele A. Hernandez

If you do want to know about how an Ivy League school chooses who gets accepted, this book is by a former admissions officer from Dartmouth. It does show you just how important certain aspects of your academic record are in the application process.

College Match by Steven R. Antonoff and Marie A. Friedemann

This book could be the best the how-to-find-the-best-school-for-you guide on the market. It offers easy to understand steps for identifying what you are looking for and how to find schools at which you will thrive and grow to reach your highest potential. Excellent worksheets to help you organize the entire process.