BURLINGTON, Vt. -- The "Fiske Guide to Colleges," a leading college guidebook, has selected Champlain College for its 2016 edition highlighting more than 300 of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain.

Compiled by former New York Times education editor Edward B. Fiske, the guidebook selects colleges based primarily on academic quality. It includes information about each college's academics, social life, student body, financial aid, campus setting, housing, food and extracurricular activities.

"Our inclusion in the Fiske Guide is an recognition of the value and quality of a Champlain College education," noted Champlain President Donald J. Laackman.

"Guides that include student voices, qualitative evaluations, and realistic quantitative comparisons are valuable resources for parents, students and high school counselors looking for colleges that are a good fit," he added.

Fiske, who visited Champlain College earlier this year, describes Champlain in the guide as "a small college with a unique approach to blending professional education and the liberal arts.... (it) is an up-and-coming small college, situated on a hill overlooking Vermont's scenic Lake Champlain, that has set out to reinvent the relationship between professional studies and the liberal arts through its so-called ‘upside-down" curriculum.'"

The Fiske Guide adds comments from current students to help describe the college, "Champlain is not for everyone," says a sophomore game art and animation major. "But if you have something you're passionate about, if you want a global perspective, and if you want to go somewhere unique, there's nowhere better."

Another student observes: "Champlain is a small school with a big vision of how to refashion the relationship between professional training and the liberal arts. It offers a unique option for students who have a strong interest in one of the professional majors that it offers and are eager to get started. ‘Champlain is a college where opportunities are at your doorstep,' says a says a business administration major. ‘You just have to take the leap of faith and go for it.'"

Fiske's description of Champlain College lauds its location in Burlington and the academic campus consisting of a mix of lovely restored Victorian mansions and complimentary modern structures of brick with slate roofs and green trim. While this is the first year Champlain has been included in the Fiske Guide, the College has been consistently ranked among the top regional colleges in U.S. News and World Report's annual "Best Colleges" and was named a "Top-Up-and-Coming School" in 2013. It is included in the Princeton Review's "The Best 379 Colleges: 2015 Edition" and the Princeton Review "2015 Guide to 353 Green Colleges."

The 880-page guide is available in book stores on July 1 and online at http://www.fiskeguide.com/. The guide includes Fiske's "Best Buys" schools that deliver the best education at the most reasonable costs; lists of each school's strongest majors and programs, candid comments from each school's current students and a self-quiz to help students understand which college is right for them

Learn more about Champlain College at www.champlain.edu.