<p>Are there other reputable sources apart from US News which ranks universities and departments? It's pretty hard to make decisions based on one source. Thanks!</p>
<p>In addition to US News (for undergrad)
The Gourman Report
Laissez-Faire Ranking of American Colleges
Ruggs Recommendations On the Colleges
College Finder
Princeton Review
Baccalaureate Origins of Doctoral Recipients</p>
<p>Fiske's guide.:)</p>
<p>For overall ratings, I really like Fiske. His academic ratings are spot on...in my opinion, much better than the USNWR. His Quality of life ratings are off though.</p>
<p>As for department rankings, the USNWR, Gourman Report and NRC are all pretty reliable. </p>
<p>The Princeton Review is no good if you ask me.</p>
<p>Help yourself</p>
<p>colored darts and a map...and oh yeah, check out the schools, see which one you like, otherwise...darts!</p>
<p>You forgot the step prior to dart throwing. Pouring over the pages of your multiple guides, highlighting, post in notes all over, dog earring pages, spots & sticky things causing pages to stick together........then put up the map and throw the darts. Put the training into it though. I mean don't throw your darts without some divine intervention.</p>
<p>I agree that Fiske is quite reliable. Princeton Review nails atmospheric rankings -- they pinpoint the biggest party schools, most liberal schools, etc. very well. Their academic and other rankings are bogus, because the kids doing the ranking can't compare their school to others.</p>
<p>I've heard alot about Fiske, but I've never seen this source. Can someone please post this ranking or provide a link? Thanks.</p>
<p>Fiske is a guidebook available in bookstores and libraries. It has superb descriptions of many colleges and universities. Probably the best job of summarizing the culture of each school. Great resource for identifying possible good fit schools.</p>
<p>These colleges have the highest academic rating (5) in my 2002 edition of Fiske. Fiske also lists recommendations for a few subject areas.
Amherst
Barnard
Bowdoin
Brown
Bryn Mawr
Caltech
UC Berkeley
Carleton
U Chicago
Pomona
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Duke
Harvard
Haverford
U Illinois UC
Johns Hopkins
MIT
U Michigan AA
UNC Chapel Hill
Northwestern
Oberlin
U Penn
Princeton
Reed
Rice
St John's (MD)
Stanford
Swarthmore
UVA
Wellesley
Wesleyan
C of William and Mary
Williams
U Wisconsin Madison
Yale</p>
<p>There are a large number of colleges ranked 3 an 4...it would be helpful if Fiske had cross-referenced lists of "academic rating" with "strongest major".</p>
<p>I think its funny that people can say that a ranking book "nailed" all the rankings, considering most of them have only actually attended one school, tops.</p>
<p>MoatToMoat, you need to attend a school in order to become a good judge of things like the availability of academic advising, the difficulty of the courses in a given department, etc.</p>
<p>You do NOT need to attend a school in order to get a very solid grasp of its ATMOSPHERE, which is the aspect that I said Princeton Review "nailed." One good party weekend is all you need to know whether this is a raging kegger school, a Birkenstocks & Howard Dean school, a school where the students do nothing but study, etc..</p>
<p>Most of us who spent four years in college spent party weekends at a LOT more than one school. Since Princeton Review agreed 100% with the cultural aspects I observed firsthand when I spent weekends at Brown, Barnard, Wesleyan, Yale, Harvard, Bryn Mawr, Chicago, Haverford, Swarthmore, Penn, Skidmore, Colby, and Oberlin, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it wasn't random coincidence, and that it's trustworthy when it talks about atmosphere at other schools, too.</p>
<p>One thing about the Fiske guide is that the ratings are quite broad, especially categories 3 and 4. I don't think category 1 is actually used, but I am not sure. </p>
<p>The Fiske academic rating does not emphasize student selectivity. Among the schools with an academic rating of 5, there is Caltech with an SAT range 1450-1570 and also UNC Chapel Hill with an SAT range 1190-1390. Vanderbilt, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, and Georgetown did not rate a 5 although they had SAT ranges 100 points higher than UNC Chapel Hill. (At least in my 2002 edition.)</p>
<p>I am not saying Fiske isn't a good guidebook. I think it's excellent...just making some observations.</p>
<p>Collegehelp, Fiske's academic rating measures academics, not SAT scores.</p>
<p>check both the fiske guide and peterson's "competitive" colleges.</p>
<p>The value of Fiske Guide, to me, lies in the superb descriptions. The thing that impresses me the most is how much information Fiske is able to pack between the lines of the written descriptions. A careful reading, paying close attention to subtle distinctions between schools, provides an excellence sense of each school.</p>
<p>It's quite sophisticated writing, actually. What is not mentioned in each description is often as important as what is -- something that becomes apparent as you read multiple descriptions. It's worthwhile to stop after each desciption and ask yourself what was mentioned and what was not. We found that reading Fiske out-loud in the car as we drove towards each school was a valuable exercise, often triggering conversations such as, "Hmm. I wonder what he meant by that?"</p>
<p>I appreciate the fact that Fiske is able to be consistently positive in tone, while at the same time communicating pros and cons of each school. See his sample entry on the University of Miami on the Fiske website for the nicest way of saying "party school" you'll ever read.</p>
<p>It's fantastic to be able to read a short description that communicates the essence of what each school is about. Very useful in building a list for further consideration.</p>
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<p>One thing about the Fiske guide is that the ratings are quite broad, especially categories 3 and 4.</p>
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<p>Actually, this can be a plus. I think that one-by-one rankings like USNews can contribute to a false sense of accuracy. I don't think it's really possible to pin down whether Dartmouth or Duke is stronger academically, and for Fiske's purposes, it's more important to stress that they're both excellent than to ruminate about which is more excellent.</p>
<p>Of course, you could always subdivide the tiers -- I don't think that Wisconsin and MIT are indistinguishable academicaly -- but it's still a system that works in the context of a mostly-narrative book.</p>
<p>collegehelp- Just because a college has lower admissions requirements does not make it a better school academically.</p>
<p>I used my copy of the Fiske Guide a lot when I was researching colleges and liked it for all the reasons cited so far. It captures the nuances that statistics miss.</p>
<p>The academic rating in the Fiske Guide is based in part on student academic ability and student academic "seriousness". This is explained in the beginning of the book. The rating is also based on other things.</p>
<p>I just wanted to point out that the ratings are really based on a three-point scale (3, 4, or 5) which I think could be more discriminating. </p>
<p>Furthermore, the academic rating means different things for different types of colleges. A five for a private university means high SATs. A five for a public university means it attracts the better students in the state, but it does not necessarily mean high SATs, or it means that the SATs are not as important in rating publics. For LACs, the academic rating for an LAC places less emphasis on facilities and resources and more emphasis on faculty quality.</p>
<p>As Fiske explains, the academic rating of 5 is based on somewhat different things for private universities, public universities, and LACs. It should not be interpreted the same way for each type of institution. A 5 at Caltech does not mean the same thing as a 5 at UNC Chapel Hill. It does mean they are among the best for that TYPE of institution.</p>