The Fiske Guide to Colleges is one option. It has both some qualitative and quantitative information on over 300 colleges. Typical information you can find in a given college writeup in Fiske:
- a brief history of the college
- location and environment description
- a breakdown of the main academic focuses and strongest majors
- information on class sizes and academic tone/tenor
- an idea of the breakdown of the student body (geography, ethnicity, some less quantitative comments)
- housing information
- activity and extra curricular information
- test score ranges
- cost range
- size of college
- acceptance rates
It won't give you info on colleges like your local community college or state "directionals" (eg, Southern University). But the better state flagships are there, and a lot of private colleges.
I like Fiske because it is a mix of qualitative and quantitative information. You get the "flavor" of the college, not just the facts. We would often then go dig into the specific website of the college after deciding it was worth following up on from the Fiske guide.
But as howlerkarma said, the colleges are pretty heavily invested in marketing. Getting to the real pros and cons of a given college can be a challenge. Even with Fiske you have to read between the lines -- they don't really give negative reviews, but I have learned to spot a luke warm one, or the use of an adjective that tells me that a college might not be what we are looking for. But Fiske is a pretty approachable guide that might help you D start to look at some options.
