Top-rated Guide Again Names Florida Tech as Among Best Schools

MELBOURNE, FLA.—Florida Institute of Technology is among 305 public and private schools nationwide and one of just nine in Florida chosen by the “Fiske Guide to Colleges.” Fiske places Florida Tech in the “inexpensive” category for private schools and lists it under the heading, “Engineering/Top Technical Institutes”. USA Today calls the book, “The best college guide you can buy.”

The Fiske Guide calls itself selective and subjective. It doesn’t try to cover all of the United States’ more than 2,200 four-year colleges but showcases the colleges it considers best, most interesting and the ones students “most want to know about.” 

The 2009 edition selects more than 300 of the country’s best and most interesting colleges and universities from among more than 2,200 four-year institutions. According to the guide, special efforts were made for 2009 to have a good selection of four types that enjoy special current popularity: engineering and technical schools, those with religious emphasis, those with an environmental focus and those located along the Sunbelt where the cost of education is considerably less than at northern counterparts.

Fiske rates colleges separately, from one to five, on academics, social life and quality of life. A grade of three, which Florida Tech got in each area, is the normal score of schools in the book.

Florida Tech, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is regularly included in other guides, such as one by U.S. News and World Report and the Princeton Review.