Though the University's recent rise in U.S. News & World Report's college rankings has pleased admissions officers, such numerical figures can leave prospective students wanting more.
This might be where nationally published college guidebooks enter the picture, but many students downplayed the guides' importance in their decision-making processes.
The authors of these books claim to give students "practical advice," and try to tell students "what it's really like to go to that school.'" Some of the books, such as "Lovejoy's College Guide" and "Barron's Profiles of American Colleges," provide purely statistical information. Others, including "The Insider's Guide to the Colleges," provide more subjective narratives allowing for the author's personal insights.
So how does anyone who is not already a Duke student know what life is really like here? Guidebooks often serve to inundate prospective students with cliches about the University.
"Students usually choose Duke because it's more relaxed and fun than Harvard," says a Duke student quoted in The Fiske Guide to Colleges.
Less favorable impressions of the University are also included in the guidebooks, leaving Duke students defensive.
"The portrayal of the Duke student as a self-serving, white yuppy -- that's really not true," said Trinity freshman R.P. Dempsey.
Despite all the information the guides try to provide prospective students, most college applicants do not to use them as their major source of information.
"Students are more inclined to mention something they have heard by hearsay, rather than something they have read," said alumni representative Nancy Jackson, who conducts University interviews in New Jersey. Applicants rarely mention guidebooks at all during interviews, Jackson said.
Students agree that none of the books are able to substitute for firsthand knowledge. "The guidebooks were helpful in the objective factors they looked at, but not in the subjective things," said Trinity senior Jennifer Thompson. "For example, when they tried to describe the social scene, I don't think that's something they could generalize."
What a student gets out of a guide largely depends upon who is writing the essay. Students who are looking for an unbiased account may want to look carefully before choosing a book. The narratives in "Peterson's" are written and submitted by many universities' admissions offices.
"We let the schools speak for themselves," said Susan Dilts, managing editor of "Peterson's."
The University pays approximately $1,900 annually to have its narrative included in the book, said Kathy Phillips, public relations specialist for the office of admissions. "Peterson's" also produces a section of the guide with statistical information about the schools, for which it does not charge colleges.
"What we work with here in the admissions office are pretty much one or two guides that we pay to participate in," Phillips said.
Because universities' work with guides like "Peterson's," the books tend to read like admissions office catalogs: "Students enjoy an academic community that maintains a commitment to individual education and an appreciation of academic and individual diversity."
Duke does not have such extensive control over the information that appears in other college guides. "As far as the guides that you see that are more subjective . . . we have no idea how we get in there," Phillips said.
Most of the essays in these guides are written by the companies' staff members. But the essays in "Barron's Top 50" are written by one recent graduate of each institution.
Tom Fischgrund, editor of "Barron's Top 50," says his approach gives readers more detail and depth. Fischgrund instructs alumni to "write a chapter as if you were talking to your best friend."
This sometimes gives the book an irreverent attitude. "Not everyone [at Duke] drives a BMW, although some certainly do," according to "Barron's."
But because the perspective is limited to a single university graduate, the book lacks the breadth of some of its competitors.
"The disadvantage to being in the evaluative guides is that they are inherently limiting," says Christoph Guttentag, director of undergraduate admissions. "Evaluative guides tend to minimize the diversity of experiences that Duke students have."
There are a few college guides that provide an entirely different view on the schools. "The Multicultural Student's Guide to Colleges" is geared toward nonwhite students. Its author, Robert Mitchell, initially created the book as a supplement to the other guides. Mitchell's guide focuses on topics such as student diversity and special programs and facilities available to nonwhite students.
"A dozen or so of those schools among the top 50 are marked by a lack of diversity," he said.
Mitchell, a high school teacher who wrote the book himself, said he gathers information by surveying students through the mail.
"Uniformly, kids would talk about how segregated the [Duke] campus was," he said.
"The Insider's Guide to the Colleges," published by Yale University's student newspaper, is more charitable toward the University : "Although the stereotype of the Southern, preppie, upper-crust Duke student persists, in recent years there has been a move toward a greater diversity in the student body."
The "Insider's Guide" relies on student interviews conducted by the staff of The Yale Daily News. Though the book claims to give more inside information than its competitors, writers often fail to make actual campus visits. Instead, they often rely on as few as five telephone conversations with selected students from a given school.
Perhaps the value of college guides was best surmized by Geoff Shandler, assistant editor of the "Fiske Guide to Colleges" : "Until you go, you really don't know."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.