Some publications, such as U.S. News and World Report and Money Magazine rank colleges and universities in numerical order. Other publications, such as Birnbach's New and Improved College Guide, provide subjective descriptions of colleges and universities. Some guidebooks, such as the College Board's The College Handbook , do not attempt to rank or rate colleges and universities, but instead provide information about student enrollment, academic program offerings, descriptions of the social and physical environment, and sometimes notes on the financial health of colleges and universities. The purpose of these guidebooks is to help students learn more about institutions they might wish to consider attending. There are guidebooks designed to help students select graduate and professional schools, but most current guidebooks are intended to help students select the right college or university for an undergraduate degree.
Most guidebooks also rate the academic competitiveness or selectivity.
For example, Peterson's Guide rates four year colleges as most difficult, very difficult, moderately difficult, minimally difficult and noncompetitive. These ratings, however, are not intended to be overall rankings of institutional quality. Traditionally guidebooks do not rank schools, nor do they offer subjective descriptions or recommendations about the quality of social life or the types of professors found at a specific college or university. Until recently most efforts to rank institutions have focused on graduate programs. The emphasis on undergraduate programs is marked by the success of U.S. News and World Report and Money Magazine which were the first to publish special issues that attempted to provide useful guidance information to potential college students and to rank most four-year institutions in the United States.