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Purchase Makes Highly Selective Fiske Guide for 2021

Purchase College has been selected for inclusion in the 2021 edition of The Fiske Guide to Colleges based on the college’s strength in academics, arts and culture, social life, financial aid, campus environment, extracurricular activities, and more.

The highly selective guide, compiled by former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske, includes only a few hundred colleges and universities out of several thousand higher education institutions in the U.S.

According to the description in the 2021 guide, Purchase College “is a perfect place to study the arts and still be able to indulge in academics of all kinds, or vice versa.”

The guide also praises the “engaged, extremely qualified” professors and the proximity of Purchase College to New York City, which the guidebook calls “ideal” for the “creative, socially conscious students, who take full advantage of the endless cultural and professional opportunities the city has to offer.”

Quoting a literature major, the guide says: “There’s a raw energy that exists on campus – in the students and professors – that I don’t think many colleges have.” Another student enjoys that Purchase is a “great place to come and devote yourself to your craft.”

“We’re pleased that Purchase has been nationally recognized for the quality, value, and range of our academics, the dedication of our top-notch faculty, and the uniqueness of our campus culture,” said Shane Seaman, Interim Dean of Enrollment Management at Purchase College. “We’re proud to offer what Fiske calls ‘a personalized, diverse education unique within the SUNY system.’”

More About Fiske

The Fiske Guide to Colleges, which has been published for 37 years, provides a subjective and systematic look at colleges, giving readers the real personality of the institutions based on a wide range of subjects. Research, accompanied by testimonials from students, offers helpful and honest information about academic climates and courses.

The List Goes On

In addition to the Fiske recognition, Purchase College has recently been included on other significant college ranking lists.

  • The Princeton Review ranked Purchase as a Best Northeastern College and a Best Value College for 2020.
  • Home to the acclaimed Performing Arts Center, Purchase was ranked on the list of Best College Theaters by Princeton Review as well.
  • Purchase is included among the best National Liberal Arts Colleges listed in the 2020 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges, which also ranked Purchase as a top performer on social mobility, a metric that measures how well colleges serve lower income students.