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  Get Into College—College Viewbooks
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   College ViewbooksFinancial Aid
- Need-based vs need-blind
- What you want is not always what you get
- Building your aid package
- Where to learn more
What Happens Next?
- Awaiting admissions decision
- Waitlisted
- Time to reflect
Transfers
Taking a Year Off
International Students
List of all USA Colleges
 Join the Admissions Guide Advisor forums to share your experiences and questions about how to get into college!
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The College Literature
One of the earliest literatures you will receive from colleges is the viewbook. You get this viewbook when you make an inquiry on their website, sign a card at a college fair, or visit their campus.
Getting the real picture
Always keep in mind that whenever you read a viewbook, you are actually seeing the college as intended by their marketing department. It’s all marketing and advertisement glitz. Don't build a college list just because a college sent you an apparently personal letter inviting you to apply. On the other hand, college viewbooks and similar literature can be a good starter to begin with.
But first of all:
How did I come to get all these brochures and glossy publications?
When you took the
SAT
,
PSAT
, or
ACT
, you are asked to answer some questions about yourself. One of the questions is if you wanted to receive the Student Search Service for the SAT or the Educational Opportunity Service if you took the ACT. If you answered yes, you are giving the College Board the right to sell your personal information to any college that requests it.
College viewbooks
Viewbooks usually say more about the marketing skills of the firm engaged by the schools, but if you can read the book with a critical eye, you can learn a thing or two from them. When I applied to college, the first thing I read was their viewbook. The viewbook can give some general information about the school, so that you can have a feel of what type of school it is.
Some of them contain statistics or profiles of the incoming class, which would be useful if you want to measure how comfortable you will be academically at that particular college. It can be a starting point to initiate contact with schools that you may be interested in. But remember, doing that will send even more mail and brochures to your home.
College catalogs
Despite that, personally I feel that viewbooks are the least useful items. You should instead take a look at the college catalog. They provide you a more down to earth list of their faculty and courses, without the glitzy advertising. A catalog is merely informative without trying to sell anything to you. Most catalogs are big and expensive to print, so colleges usually reserve them for the serious customers who request them. Some will ask you to pay a small fee, while others require you to provide your name and address.
Let’s say you are interested in the humanities and social sciences. You go to your guidance office and browse through the catalogs of different schools on the shelves there. You see, you don't need to worry if you cannot decide what your major is going to be. The college catalog can give you suggestions. Back to our hypothetical story, you are browsing through the catalog from J College and you see one that says “global development studies”.
What’s that? Then the catalog says that they combine anthropology, Chinese, English, French, South African history, politics, Spanish and economics. Quite a combination for someone who is into humanities, don't you think? Without the catalog, you may never have heard of “global developmental studies”.
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