CNN - Review: 'The Insider's Guide to Colleges 1999'

(CNN) -- Getting into college has gotten so complicated that even choosing a guide to colleges can be difficult. "The Insider's Guide to Colleges", however, aims to fix that problem.

Packed with over 900 pages of information about 300 schools across the United States (and a few in Canada), "The Insider's Guide" clearly has a wealth of information. It is the source of this information that sets this guide apart from the rest.

"The Insider's Guide" is one of the few guides compiled exclusively by college students, claiming that this internal perspective far exceeds any other guide. To a large extent, this is true: "The Insider's Guide" is clearly written for prospective students, not their parents. Most reviews consist of a concise description of the courses, people, social scene, living arrangements, and other perks of the school. Preceded by an informative chart with most key number such as enrollment, average scores, and every breakdown of the student body that you could ever need, the descriptions of the schools are accurate. A few possible miscues are the obsession with alcohol when talking about the social scene, and the lack of information concerning athletics and intramurals.

The best part of the guide may be the 75 pages or so of introduction that covers everything from SAT hints or how to dress for an interview to suggestions for international and handicapped students. While this portion of the guide is highly valuable, it may be a little weighted towards the Ivy League viewpoint of college admissions. On the whole, however, the Yale Daily News staff does an excellent job of balancing the necessary kick-in-the-butt speeches about taking the SATs early to the soothing "everything's gonna be OK" words of college admissions in general. The section of how to use the guide and how to go about the college selection in general is also highly valuable for those students still confused by differing advice coming from everyone from a guidance counselor to Aunt Ruthie.

"The Insider's Guide" proves itself a highly valuable tool for narrowing college selections from 100 to around 7 to 10. It is still limited by the fact that the best way to choose a college is to visit and "get the feeling." As any college student will tell you, there is no substitute for the feeling, no matter what mommy and daddy say. But "The Insider's Guide" is a close second.

James Click is a junior at Yale University, the school where he "got the feeling".