Calvin also was featured in the recently released 2003 "Fiske Guide to Colleges," where it was named both a best school and one of just 43 best buys, and the 2003 "Unofficial, Unbiased Insider's Guide to the 320 Most Interesting Colleges." The Princeton Review guide annually garners national headlines with its lists within the guide. Students are surveyed and asked to rate their school in a variety of areas. Calvin, this year, made several of those surveys, including: Best Academic Bang For Your Buck (#2), Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch (#10), Got Milk? (#11), Stone-cold Sober Schools (#15), Best Quality of Life (#18) and Students Pray On A Regular Basis (#20). In the Best Academic Bang for Your Buck category, a measure of academic quality vs tuition cost, Calvin trailed only Rice University.
Just getting into "The Best 345 Colleges" is a coup. Those 345 schools represent only about 10% of the nation's colleges and universities. Other state schools included in the guide are: Albion, Kalamazoo, Michigan State, Michigan Tech and the University of Michigan.
The 2003 Fiske Guide to Colleges does not achieve the same notoriety as Princeton's book, but is considered one of the most prestigious of the many guides available. Now in its 19th edition the Fiske guide is under the guidance of former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske.
The Fiske Guide profiles "300 of the best and most interesting institutions in the nation." Calvin was one of seven state schools in the 2003 guide, joining MIAA colleagues Albion, Alma, Hope and Kalamazoo as well as the Big Ten's Michigan and Michigan State. But Calvin was the only state school named a Best Buy, an honor that Fiske awards to schools that "offer remarkable educational opportunities at a relatively modest cost."
The Fiske Guide said that Calvin is considered one of the country's top evangelical colleges and that "Christian values are as much a feature of the Calvin College experience as academics." The Fiske Guide noted, however, that the overall academic environment at Calvin is challenging and that Calvin graduates "have few problems getting accepted to graduate schools of law, medicine, or business." Fiske, like the Princeton Review, rates Calvin very high for quality of life (giving it four stars).
The "Unofficial, Unbiased Insider's Guide to the 320 Most Interesting Colleges" is published by Kaplan and it too praises Calvin's mix of academic excellence and Christian commitment. It also pays kudos to the Calvin faculty, saying "part of what makes the Calvin experience so rewarding for students is the dedication of the faculty to the students, and of the students to each other." The Kaplan guide includes state schools Albion, Hope, Kalamazoo, Michigan State and Michigan.
Still to come are the 2003 rankings from U.S. News & World Report.