For the fourth consecutive year, Oglethorpe University is included among the Fiske Guide to Colleges‘ annual list of the 20 “Best Buy” colleges and universities in the country.

Oglethorpe is once again the only school in Georgia—public or private—to make Fiske’s 2020 list of 10 private and 10 public colleges and universities nationwide.

For 37 years, the Fiske Guide has identified a select group of schools noted for quality academic offerings and affordable cost for its annual Best Buy list. These are schools that, in the judgment of the Fiske editors, offer “outstanding educational value as determined by academic quality in relation to the net cost of attendance.”

Fiske specifically noted this about Oglethorpe: “This urban-based liberal arts school attracts a student body rich in socioeconomic and racial diversity, thanks in part to generous financial aid,” and further recognized that Oglethorpe “will match the in-state tuition rate of each U.S. state’s flagship institution for incoming freshmen who meet certain criteria.”

Oglethorpe’s in-state tuition match program, Flagship 50, was launched in fall 2018 and was the first program of its kind in the country.

Fiske’s 2021 list includes the following 20 public and private colleges and universities:

Private:
Centre College
The Cooper Union
Drew University
Goucher College
Oglethorpe University
Olin College of Engineering
Rice University
St. Olaf College
Vanderbilt University
Warren Wilson College

Public:
Arizona State University
University of Florida
University of Iowa
New College of Florida
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Purdue University
SUNY – College at Geneseo
Texas A&M University
Truman State University
University of Washington

Edward B. Fiske served for 17 years as education editor of The New York Times, during which time he realized that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. He wrote the Fiske Guide to Colleges to help them, updated annually with the Fiske editorial team. The Fiske Guide aims to share “the unique personalities of schools” and offers in-depth college descriptions, ratings, up-to-date tips from current students, and tools for broadening and narrowing prospective students’ college lists.