Princeton Review: Olin Is One of Nation’s “Best 378 Colleges”
Needham, Mass (PRWEB) August 07, 2013 -- The Princeton Review has named Olin College of Engineering one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education. The education services company features Olin in the new 2014 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 378 Colleges,” published today.
Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review’s flagship college guide. It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in the book in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of students attending the colleges.
Academics is the primary criterion for choosing schools for the book, according to Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior VP / publisher and author of “The Best 378 Colleges.” Franek notes the guide bases its selections on data from institutional surveys, as well as input from the Princeton Review staff, information gathered from personal visits to schools and, most notably, feedback from students attending those schools.
“It is their opinions that college applicants often value the most, particularly on, or in the absence of, campus visits,” said Franek. “We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.”
“We’re very pleased to be recognized once again by The Princeton Review as one of America’s best colleges,” said Olin President Richard K. Miller. “It speaks to our innovative campus culture, where learning is serious fun, that we are singled out as one of the few schools ranked both for students studying the most and loving their college.”
In its profile on Olin, The Princeton Review praises the Needham engineering school for its real-world approach to engineering education focusing on hands-on, project-based learning, and close relations among peers and professors.
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges academically or from 1 to 378 in any category. Instead it reports in the book 62 ranking lists of top 20 colleges in various categories. The lists are based on The Princeton Review's survey of 126,000 students attending the colleges. The 80-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences. Olin is on the following ranking lists in “The Best 378 Colleges”:
#1 EASIEST CAMPUS TO GET AROUND
#2 STUDENTS STUDY THE MOST
#6 PROFESSORS GET HIGH MARKS
#6 BEST SCIENCE LAB FACILITIES (new ranking list this year)
#7 LGBT-FRIENDLY
#10 BEST CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE
#10 THERE'S A GAME?
#11 BEST QUALITY OF LIFE
#11 BEST COLLEGE DORMS
#15 BEST CAREER SERVICES
#16 STONE-COLD SOBER SCHOOLS
#17 THEIR STUDENTS LOVE THESE COLLEGES
#18 GREAT FINANCIAL AID
The Princeton Review’s school profiles and ranking lists in “The Best 378 Colleges” are posted online at PrincetonReview.com.
The schools in “The Best 378 Colleges” also have rating scores in eight categories that The Princeton Review tallies based on institutional data it collected during the 2012-13 academic year and/or its student survey for the book. The ratings are scores on a scale of 60 to 99 and they appear in each school profile. Among the ratings in the Olin profile are scores of 99 for academics and 99 for admission selectivity.
“The Best 378 Colleges” is the 22nd edition of The Princeton Review’s annual “Best Colleges” book published by Random House. The Princeton Review is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, tutoring, books, and other student resources. Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., the company is not affiliated with Princeton University.
Joseph Huner, Olin College of Engineering, http://www.olin.edu, 781-292-2255, [email protected]
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