The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis
  modeling III: model calibration, comparison, and evaluation
  Stellar population synthesis (SPS) provides the link between the stellar and
dust content of galaxies and their observed spectral energy distributions. In
the present work we perform a comprehensive calibration of our own flexible SPS
(FSPS) model against a suite of data. Several public SPS models are
intercompared, including the models of Bruzual & Charlot (BC03), Maraston (M05)
and FSPS. The relative strengths and weaknesses of these models are evaluated,
with the following conclusions: 1) The FSPS and BC03 models compare favorably
with MC data at all ages, whereas M05 colors are too red and the age-dependence
is incorrect; 2) All models yield similar optical and near-IR colors for old
metal-poor systems, and yet they all provide poor fits to the integrated J-K
and V-K colors of both MW and M31 star clusters; 4) All models predict ugr
colors too red, D4000 strengths too strong and Hdelta strengths too weak
compared to massive red sequence galaxies, under the assumption that such
galaxies are composed solely of old metal-rich stars; 5) FSPS and, to a lesser
extent, BC03 can reproduce the optical and near-IR colors of post-starburst
galaxies, while M05 cannot. Reasons for these discrepancies are explored. The
failure at predicting the ugr colors, D4000, and Hdelta strengths can be
explained by some combination of a minority population of metal-poor stars,
young stars, blue straggler and/or blue horizontal branch stars, but not by
appealing to inadequacies in either theoretical stellar atmospheres or
canonical evolutionary phases (e.g., the main sequence turn-off). We emphasize
that due to a lack of calibrating star cluster data in regions of the
metallicity-age plane relevant for galaxies, all of these models continue to
suffer from serious uncertainties that are difficult to quantify. (ABRIDGED)
