College life, as seen from student level

Sure, the academics at MIT are stellar, but what about the guys?

According to one voice in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology edition of College Prowler, the prospective college student's antidote to the Princeton Review doldrums, ''Wellesley has a saying about MIT men that I find most true: 'MIT Men -- the odds are good, but the goods are odd.' "

Dating may not be the most important thing to an incoming freshman, but it's right up there. When deciding on your future for the next four years, it doesn't hurt to get viewpoints on a variety of topics from the student body, which is where the Prowler gets its roar. The two-year-old guidebook series touches upon aspects of student life unique to each college it profiles, from the price of off-campus housing to the popularity of athletics to the quality of the dining halls.

''When you're looking at college [guidebooks], you're looking at all the glossy images," explains Harvard junior Dominic Hood, 21, who compiled student opinions and wrote editorials for the Harvard Prowler due out in September. ''I felt like I didn't get a fair view of students' perspectives at any university I visited."

The 100-edition series got its start as a project by 24-year-old Luke Skurman, who wanted to move on from his high school in San Francisco to an East Coast business college. ''There didn't seem to be enough in-depth knowledge," says Skurman about his scouting process. ''Everyone was in the same dilemma. No one really knew the answers."

Inspired by his experience, he and his colleagues at Carnegie-Mellon University created a prototype Prowler for an entrepreneurial class. Where existing guidebooks gave only a few pages at most to any particular college, Prowlers would devote an entire 60-page book to each institution. The team focused on Clark University in Worcester, publishing that first edition at Kinkos.

Developing the idea after college, the group began hiring freelance writers to compile student surveys. With a successful first run, they set in motion a plan to make new editions every year, this time hiring a student writer from each school to compile campus opinions. Today, Boston-bound high school grads can learn about Boston University, Boston College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Tufts from the Prowler, and editions for more schools are in production. And while they're gaining momentum at Barnes & Noble, you can order them online for $5.95 each.

Hood, who hails from New Orleans, created the new Harvard edition by e-mailing a questionnaire to about 40 of his Harvard friends. He says a book like Prowler would have given him a better idea of area life than the admissions office, which generalized a description of Boston living.

''It's diverse, there are a lot of people," said Hood, ''but I didn't know where the pizza places were, where the bars were. This kind of provides students one comprehensive guide as to where all those things are."

Unafraid to address relevant issues, College Prowler even explores the campus drug scene, giving higher grades to schools where drugs are less of a problem. ''It's an actuality of life," says Skurman. ''Drugs are not a good thing, but they do exist. And I think the more education, the better."

The books are slowly gaining recognition as a useful resource for learning about local colleges from the inside. Susan Whalley, a Massachusetts college counselor in Devens and author of ''Counselor's Toolbox," a reference guide for guidance counselors, recently got her shipment of Prowlers in and has begun recommending them to students, many of whom are headed for Boston-area colleges. Sending off high school students for more than 20 years, she wants to make sure the decisions they make are thorough.

''I like to advise students to use a lot of resources," she said. ''This would just be one piece. The main resource is their own eyes and ears."