The Fiske Guide's Most Interesting Colleges

The Fiske Guide to Colleges 2012 made a special effort to include a good selection of four types of institutions that seem to be enjoying special popularity at present: engineering and technical schools, those with a religious emphasis, those with an environmental focus, and those located along the Sunbelt.

Finally, in a few cases the journalist's prerogative was exercised in writing about schools that are simply interesting. Below is an arbitrary list of the Top 13 Most Interesting and Unusual Schools featured in the Fiske Guide to College 2012.

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Cooper Union (New York, N.Y.)

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Also a Fiske Best Buy for academics and affordability, Cooper Union features a free, yes FREE, education in art, architecture, and engineering. Expect Ivy-level competition for a place in the class here. Instead of a conventional campus, Cooper Union has the East Village - which is quite a deal. But be prepared to spend your nights hitting the books rather than the bars. Total enrollment is 990 students.

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Also a Fiske Best Buy for academics and affordability, Cooper Union features a free, yes FREE, education in art, architecture, and engineering. Expect Ivy-level competition for a place in the class here. Instead of a conventional campus, Cooper Union has the East Village - which is quite a deal. But be prepared to spend your nights hitting the books rather than the bars. Total enrollment is 990 students.

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Comments

[deridaa]

10:04 PM on 07/26/2011

Olin is NOT the equivalent of Cal Tech or MIT. Anyone who says that is delusional. The entrance to Olin is easier than entrance to Cal Tech or MIT. Staying in Olin is easier as well. This sounds great to the parents of Olin students whose kids couldnt get into Cal Tech or MIT- it also sounds great to those who couldnt afford Cal Tech or MIT- but its absolute nonsense. You can't compare the schools even the engineering program is less rigorous. The writer is delusional.

[chroma]

04:52 PM on 07/21/2011

Our son is at Colorado College, and we believe that the education that he is getting equals or surpasses the education my husband got at MIT and I got at Cornell. It is a truly amazing college.

[sheerplat]

05:01 PM on 07/20/2011

Washington and Lee is far more interesting than Davidson. Not only do they have one of the strongest honor codes in the country, but they even have dead general and his horse buried on campus for heaven's sake! Also one of the only schools where students have to be able to pass a swim test to graduate, haha.

[David Dawson]

04:28 PM on 07/26/2011

Second that!!!

[Richard Short]

09:25 AM on 07/20/2011

When I was a student at Davidson, we were known as the Princeton of the South, not the Dartmouth of the South. But we said that Princeton was the Davidson of the north.

[Brittany Lock]

02:14 AM on 07/20/2011

Okay. They're "interesting" but are they good? Are you going to get a job after graduating from one?

[George Garros]

01:51 AM on 07/20/2011

HMMM, how INTERESTING. These schools are all so... oh, what's the word? Interesting!

How did you rank this again?

[hbw3]

10:11 PM on 07/19/2011

Don't think you've got the right picture for Marlboro - try this one: http://www.marlboro.edu/about/photos/main.php?g2_itemId=12937&g2_imageViewsIndex=2. The one you have is for the Graduate Center, which is about 9 miles away from the main campus, which is on a hillside.

[Goliadkin]

09:58 PM on 07/19/2011

Breast implants have not lost their sex appeal. They never had any sex appeal.

[lrschott]

08:00 PM on 07/19/2011

You must have overlooked Gallaudet University in Washington, DC that is designed for deaf in the world. I believe that this is the unique one!

[eric14]

07:57 PM on 07/19/2011

It would be interesting to hear from those who have been at or are currently attending Deep Springs. Intriguing looking place. Has a futurology feel to it.

[Drew2248]

07:18 PM on 07/19/2011

"Most interesting" colleges? What next? "Least interesting" colleges? Tallest colleges? Colleges with the most parking spaces? This is a substitute for actual journalism. You know, where you'd write an actual article about what makes a college interesting or different?

HuffPo loves this sort of childish, shallow Top Ten List stuff which requires no real research, little thought, and always gets at least some of its claims a little "off". Yeah, Yale, Harvard, and Amherst -- not very "interesting" colleges. Give me a break, people. Tiresome.

[alienator]

05:05 PM on 07/19/2011

Greenville Technical College
college that works

[Daniella Martin]

04:57 PM on 07/19/2011

I wish they'd chosen the rural undergrad campus for Marlboro College's profile, instead of the one downtown grad building. The regular campus is farm-housey and picturesque. My Marlboro thesis project spurred the following HuffPost article, btw: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniella-martin/what-do-bugs-taste-like-a_b_901775.html

[criticalthinkr1]

06:30 PM on 07/19/2011

Agreed - this building isn't even in the same town. Marlboro turns out creative, inventive, adventurous critical thinkers who gain admission to the grad schools of their choice and serve at high levels in government, business, and education, in a beautiful setting close by to vibrant metropolitan centers. It's a great investment in one's future.

[Lafftur]

04:57 PM on 07/19/2011

That photo of Kalamazoo College is the ugliest picture of a beautiful campus.

[Tim Robison]

04:50 PM on 07/19/2011

Actually half of Prescott College's new students these days are freshmen so the photo caption is a bit dated. Prescott is a great choice for freshmen as well as transfer students. Next year the college will be opening new LEED Gold rated on-campus hosing to house up to 100 1st-time freshman.

[criticalthinkr1]

06:01 PM on 07/19/2011

Hoser. Little slip of the tongue there.