America's Best Colleges for B Students: A College Guide for Students Without Straight A's

I feel that this guide might be misnamed. B students at strong schools where most of the students are college-bound probably could go to "more reputable" schools than the ones listed here. Not that reputation is important in itself, but one thing that's usually true is that a school that is hard to get into will (usually) have students who have better study habits, and your child's peers have a lot more influence over how seriously he or she takes his/her education than pretty much anything. For the most part, I think a B-minus or C student could have more luck with this guide than a solid B student.

However, there is a better guide for the "mid-range" student called Finding The College That's Right For You by John Palladino. (Again, probably most appropriate for students with an average lower than a strong B to C+ or C) It's much, much more thorough than this title and defends its reasons for choosing the colleges it recommends very well. This book (Tamara Orr's) is...Read more

I'm writing about the newest edition of this book, not the old one that others seemed to have reviewed. I found this book to be very helpful, especially with the feedback from admission officers and students. It gives you the confidence you need to apply to a college even if you aren't a straight-A student, and it gives you insight into what the admission officers really want. Most importantly, you will probably learn a thing or two about a college you might not have heard of before or considered.

I actually think this book should be called A College Guide For "C" Students. For the most part the schools were not put forward in a way that made them look at all appealing. Not nearly as helpful or hopeful as Loren Pope's book, "Colleges That Change Lives"