It was begun in 1982 by Edward B. Fiske[2] while he was the education editor of The New York Times, a position he held from 1974 to 1987.
[5][2] The initial publication of the guide was controversial because it included criticism of some schools, such as a college[specify] that had recently become co-educational that Fiske described as hostile to women.
[2] The guide's evaluations includes narrative descriptions of more than 300 selective colleges and universities of different types, reported from interviews with students and other sources.
[1] This distinguishes it from U.S. News and similar competitors, which rely on reputational surveys and other quantitative measures but largely defer to schools to write their own narrative descriptions.
Fiske emphasizes that he produces ratings, not rankings, describing his work as analogous to restaurant reviews.