The Fiske Guide to Colleges has long been recognized for providing excellent and highly readable profiles of more than 300 colleges and universities, and this year the Guide also recognizes the best value institutions in the nation based on the relationship of cost and academic quality.

Eighteen public universities in the U.S. are on the list, shown below in alphabetical order.  The Guide also allocates stars for academic quality, with five stars (*****) being the highest.

Please note that the Guide may differ from other publications in its assessment of academic quality because it does not rely on reputation only.  Instead, it considers “the overall academic climate of the institution, including its reputation in the academic world, the quality of the faculty, the level of teaching and research, the academic ability of students, the quality of libraries and other facilities, and the level of academic seriousness among students and faculty members.”

In our view, the Guide is able to do this successfully–though with some surprises–because of its extensive college contacts developed over many years.  We believe it is especially important that the publication shows not only “feel good” atmospherics but also gives readers an idea of just how rigorous a given university is likely to be.

–Evergreen State College ***

–Georgia Tech *****

–Florida ****

–Iowa ****

–Iowa State ***

–Mary Washington ***1/2

–Nebraska ***

–New College of Florida ****

–North Carolina at Asheville ****

–North Carolina at Chapel Hill ****

–Oregon ***1/2

–Oregon State ***

–Purdue ***1/2

–SUNY Binghamton ****1/2

–SUNY Geneseo ***1/2

–Texas at Austin ****1/2

–Texas A&M ****

–Wisconsin ****1/2