College included in Fiske Guide again for 2018

Saint Michael’s College is featured again in the 2018 Fiske Guide to Colleges, a highly selective guide to noteworthy schools in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The 2018 edition of Fiske includes just 321 schools based on factors such as academic quality and student life. Saint Michael’s also appeared in the 2017 edition of the Guide and several successive years prior. A student in this year’s Guide is quoted as saying: “Saint Michael’s teaches students to go out in to the world and work to make it a better place.”

For more than 30 years, the Guide, compiled by former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske, has been “a selective, subjective, and systematic look at three-hundred-plus colleges and universities in the United States, Canada, and the UK,” according to the publishers.

The idea is for readers to discover “the real personality” of  Saint Michael’s and other colleges 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, the publishers’ publicity states.

The Guide’s entry on Saint Michael’s this year starts by describing some of College’s historical Catholic roots, noting how the influence of the founding Edmundites “can be found in the college’s dedication to meaningful residential experiences, comprehensive liberal arts and social justice.” The entry describes the attractive modern campus and “spectacular backdrop” of the surrounding area, tells of engaging student-life opportunities, and lays out main points of the College’s curriculum, noting: “Saint Michael’s offers a plethora of solid programs, including business, psychology, biology, English, education, religious studies and media studies. The newly added neuroscience major is a top draw too.”

Interviews with current Saint Michael’s students by the Guide’s authors elicited many other positive impressions of the College, including:

“Students are encouraged to succeed not only by their professors, but by their peers as well.”
“The professors … are all very well educated, invested, and caring when it comes to their students.”
“Students at Saint Michael’s are extremely well-rounded…Everyone has found their niche on campus creating a community that is open and accepting.”
[Burlington] “is a great college town, as it contains two other colleges … the areas consist of young people and entrepreneurs, offering a fun atmosphere to eat, shop and go out in.”
“Volunteering is a huge aspect of life at Saint Michael’s.”
“St. Mike’s is a school that cares not only about the academic growth of students, but their personal growth as well.”
“I feel connected with my peers, and with my professors, and I think we really do a good job of making this place feel like home.”

Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as education editor of the New York Times, where he came to believe that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He is also the co-author of the Fiske Guide to Getting into the Right College and Fiske Real College Essays That Work.

Read the full 2018 Fiske Guide entry about Saint Michael’s College here>>