The Fiske Guide to Colleges is an American
media company
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
that publishes, ''inter alia'', descriptions, ratings, and analysis for more than 320
U.S. colleges and universities. It is the best-selling college guide in the United States,
although it remains significantly less well-known than
rankings
A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second.
In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...
such as the
''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Colleges rankings. It was begun in 1982 by Edward B. Fiske
while he was the education editor of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', a position he held from 1974 to 1987.
History
The guide was begun during Fiske's tenure at ''The New York Times'' as ''The New York Times Selective Guide to Colleges'', but has since become independent and publishes through
Sourcebooks
Sourcebooks, Inc., is an independent book publisher located in Naperville, Illinois. The company publishes books, ebooks, and digital products, and is one of the 20 largest publishers in the United States.
History
The company was founded in 1 ...
.
The initial publication of the guide was controversial because it included criticism of some schools, such as a college that had recently become co-educational that Fiske described as hostile to women.
More recently, the guide has received praise from the media,
with ''
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...
'' describing it as the best college guide available.
Methodology
The guide's evaluations includes narrative descriptions of more than 300 selective colleges and universities of different types, reported from interviews with students and other sources.
This distinguishes it from ''U.S. News'' and similar competitors, which rely on reputational surveys and other quantitative measures but largely defer to schools to write their own narrative descriptions. This results in a focus centered more around individual fit than comparative prestige. Fiske emphasizes that he produces ratings, not rankings, describing his work as analogous to
restaurant review
Restaurant ratings identify restaurants according to their quality, using notations such as stars or other symbols, or numbers. Stars are a familiar and popular symbol, with scales of one to three or five stars commonly used. Ratings appear in ...
s.
In addition to the descriptions, each school is rated on a one-to-five scale in three categories: academics, social life, and quality of life.
As of 2021, the Fiske Guide no longer reports average SAT and ACT scores.
References
External links
*{{Official, www.sourcebooks.com/fiske-guide-to-colleges.html
University and college rankings in the United States