New College of Florida is once again ranked as a “Best Buy” college in the 2018 edition of the respected and long-running Fiske Guide to Colleges.
Only 20 public colleges in the United States received Fiske’s “Best Buy” designation.
New College has appeared on Fiske’s “Best Buy” list since 2003. To be a “Best Buy,” colleges must meet Fiske’s criteria for a top four- or five-star ranking for academic excellence and be in its moderate- or low-price groups. Only one other Florida school appears on the list.
The Guide’s review, based in part on interviews with students, calls New College “proof that it’s possible to find success through individualism.”
The Guide adds: “Students praise the personalized attention they receive from professors; graduate students and teaching assistants don’t lead classes here and 73 percent of classes have fewer than 20 students. All disciplines provide the opportunity for original research and students also may conduct field research around the globe.”
For the 2018 edition, the Fiske Guide selected 38 “Best Buy” colleges and universities – 20 public, 18 private – in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Other public colleges on the list include top national universities such as the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, SUNY Binghamton, and Texas A&M. Private colleges on the list include Earlham College, Mount Holyoke, and McGill University.
The guide, founded by former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske, is in its 34th year.