Fiske Guide to Colleges
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The Fiske Guide to Colleges is an American
media company A media conglomerate, media company, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, video games, amusement parks, or ...
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 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'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', 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 A sourcebook is a collection of texts on a particular subject intended for use as an introduction to the subject. The selected texts are typically edited, laid out, and typeset in a uniform format before binding, and the result is often a hardcov ...
. 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'' (often stylized in all caps) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth in 1980 and launched on September 14, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headq ...
'' 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 reviews. 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