'Fiske Guide to Colleges 2016' includes Clemson

by Press Release - Wed Jul 01 13:45:48 GMT-04:00 2015

CLEMSON — Clemson University has landed a spot in the new edition of the “Fiske Guide to Colleges.” For more than 30 years, millions of students, parents and guidance counselors have relied on the guide to present the “best and most interesting” schools during their college searches.

Compiled by Edward B. Fiske, former education editor of The New York Times, the guide is “a selective, subjective and systematic look at some 300 colleges and universities in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain.”

Michelle Lecuyer, senior project editor for Sourcebooks Inc., which publishes the guide, said the selections were made with several principles in mind, beginning with academic quality.

“There are about 175 ‘selective’ colleges and universities in the nation, and by and large these constitute the best institutions academically. All of these are included in the Fiske Guide,” Lecuyer said. “In addition, an effort was made to achieve geographic diversity and a balance of public and private schools.”

Lecuyer said special efforts were made to include a good selection of four types of institutions that are popular now: engineering and technical schools, those with a religious emphasis, those with an environmental focus and those located in the Sunbelt, where the cost of education is considerably less than at their northern counterparts.

Each school’s description sums up the highlights of why, in Fiske’s opinion, the school is one that students should consider.

Clemson’s summary begins:

“Clemson is a technically oriented public university in the mold of Georgia Tech, North Carolina State, and Virginia Tech. Smaller than the latter two and more focused on undergraduates than Georgia Tech, Clemson serves up its education with ample helpings of school spirit.”

Readers will discover the real personality of Clemson in the guide, based on a broad range of subjects including student body, academics, social life, financial aid, campus setting, housing, food and extracurricular activities.

Fiske served for 17 years as education editor of The New York Times, where he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices.