<p>I've been trying to narrow down colleges to apply for. I thought something that would really help me is to figure out what is any college is best known for. I know that in the Fiske Guide to Colleges book, it has a section titled "strongest programs" that reveals what a college is most distinguished in. Unfortunately, I don't have that book. Is there any online website that shows what a colleges strongest programs are? Thanks! :) </p>
<p>You can trying borrowing that book from your local library, if you live close enough to one.</p>
<p>If you want to look online, I think it’s hard to determine “strong,” but you can try looking at the college’s most popular majors (look at college board, us news, the college’s website, etc). In most cases, that is a good indicator, but be careful not to look into it too much. What is popular is not always good.</p>
<p>K thanks!</p>
<p>You can get a copy of the Fiske Guide 2013 edition through Abe Books for $3.47 if you don’t want to pay more for a more current edition (The 2015 edition comes out next week -July 5). These editions don’t change that much from year to year.</p>
<p>Two possibilities:
- Go get the Fiske Guide. This is an easy problem to solve (unless you are dirt poor, really lazy, or don’t live anywhere near either a book store, a library, or a computer).
- Instead of trying to find what any college is best known for, first decide what you’re looking for, then search for that.</p>
<p>Examples
Art History - NYU, Williams College
Anthropology - Beloit, Berkeley, Bryn Mawr, Michigan, UChicago
Business/Finance - UPenn (Wharton)
Computer Science - Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford
Economics - MIT, Princeton, UChicago
Engineering (biomedical) - JHU
Engineering (general) - Berkeley, Caltech, MIT, Stanford
English - Amherst, Kenyon, Yale
Environmental Science - College of the Atlantic, Cornell, Duke, Middlebury
Foreign Languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish, Chinese etc) - Middlebury
Geology/Earth Sciences - Brown, Caltech, Carleton College, UC-Boulder
International Relations - Georgetown, JHU, Tufts
Math - Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Reed, UChicago
Political Science - Bowdoin, Columbia, Princeton
Psychology - Clark University
Sociology - Berkeley, Michigan, Wisconsin</p>
<p>Many other colleges could be added to this list. These are just examples of stand-out academic programs at LACs, private universities, and state flagships in some of the major arts & science fields. </p>
<p>If you’re interested in something besides academics (“best athletic facilities”, “most LGBT friendly”, “most politically active students”, etc) check out the P’ton Review lists. </p>
<p>Caveats:
- The fact that a school is “known for” some department does not necessarily mean it is the absolute best school in that field, much less the best college for a given student interested in that field.<br>
- The fact that a school has a top-ranked department does not necessarily mean the school is especially known for that department. Example: UCLA has a top-ranked linguistics department, but I doubt many people strongly associate UCLA with that field.
- The fact that a school is well known for some field may obscure the fact that the same school has strengths in other, unrelated fields. Example: JHU is well known for medicine, but in fact has many strong arts & science departments; UChicago is well known for economics, but in fact has many other strong arts & science departments; MIT is well known for excellence in many STEM fields, but also is strong in business, economics, linguistics, and political science.
- Some schools are so strong in so many fields that nothing in particular may jump out as what it is “known” for. Examples: Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford.</p>
<p>While the Fiske program recommendations are generally good, there are some problems with them. For instance, it lists my school’s history program as being one of the standouts. However, of the courses I’ve taken in the department, all have been ridiculously easy in terms of what is demanded of students to get an A. It also claims that Emory’s physical sciences are among the standout programs (a laughable notion if physics is to be considered a physical science), and neglects to discuss its environmental science program (considered a standout by the school), or Additionally, the better schools are often strong in a plethora of fields, including some highly specialized ones not listed by Fiske. while a small, resource poor school may only have two or three stand out majors which may still be less comprehensive and/or rigorous than what a place like Harvard offers in the same, comparatively weak (by Harvard standards) department. . </p>
<p>Finally, keep in mind that the vast majority of students change majors at some point, often to fields they knew little about in high school.</p>
<p>Thanks for the inputs! :)</p>