When it first appeared USA Today called this book "the guide that doesn't follow a textbook approach to college life." The Best 310 Colleges is based on The Princeton Review's student surveys--the largest campus surveys in the nation. More than 59,000 students answer questions on everything from academics to campus life. Topics include: the quality of teaching, dorms and dining hall fare, campus politics (left or right and conservative or liberal), whether the student body is diverse or homogeneous, tolerant or intolerant (of race/class relations and of gay students), and high or low in its use of beer, liquor, and marijuana. In fact this book has caused schools across the country to change their food, campuses and drinking policies. Also included is information concerning admission and financial aid policies, student body demographics, average recentered SAT scores and "What's Hot/What's Not" as well as the Counselor-O-Matic, an easy-to-use (if highly unscientific) guide to your chances of getting into each of the top 310 colleges by calculating your "desirability rating" and comparing it to each school's "selectivity rating." Here's a sampling of what students have to say: "This school is filled with wealthy, well-dressed egomaniacs who are about as socially conscious as Marie Antoinette." "I'm premed and there's no place I would rather be. The academics are a killer, no joke, but for those few who survive, the world is their oyster." "If you're not Caucasian, the adjustment here is tremendous." "Since this is a Jesuit institution, not all viewpoints get expressed, particularly liberal ones about gays and premarital sex." "You have to be smart about whereyou go at night." "The food here is really bad; it's either bland or sickening. You're lucky if they don't screw up the bread." "Socially, the surrounding area is so dead that the Denny's closes at night." "Girls over 5'8" watch out--for some reason, guys here have munchkin blood in them or something.