The Princeton Review has again named New College of Florida as one of the country’s best colleges, placing it in the top 15 percent of all four-year institutions nationwide for the 12th consecutive year.
The listing comes in The Princeton Review’s “The Best 378 Colleges: 2014 Edition,” published August 6. The Review already recognized New College with a third-place ranking among public colleges for quality and affordability in its annual “150 Best Value Colleges” listing, released in February.
“The Best 378 Colleges” does not provide an overall rank for the colleges, but provides ratings of the colleges in eight categories, based on institutional data it collected in 2012-13 and on student surveys.
The ratings are on a scale of 60 to 99. Among New College’s statistics-based ratings were:
• 97 – Academics
• 93 – Admissions Selectivity:
Student-driven ratings included:
• 97 – Interesting Professors
• 91 – Accessible professors
The college guide’s main feature is detailed profiles of each school, based on and quoting from an 80-question survey of students. Students’ remarks from the profile include:
• The College “provides challenging courses for highly self-motivated students who want a large amount of control over their academic choices.”
• Academics “are undeniably awesome” while the small-school setting and the student body “encourage a love of learning, whether it be academic, political, or hobby-related.”
• Students receive “a rounded education that enables them to critically and pragmatically examine and understand the world in which we live.”
“The Best 378 Colleges” also compiles 62 ranked lists on various aspects of campus life. Notable New College rankings include:
• #2 – Most Politically Active Students
• #3 – Most LGBT Friendly
• #5 – Easiest Campus to Get Around
• #8 – Great Financial Aid
“New College offers outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our choice of schools for the book,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publisher and author of “The Best 378 Colleges.
The Princeton Review bases its selections primarily on data it obtains in annual institutional data surveys, but also takes into account input from its staff, its 35-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, personal visits to schools, and the wide range of feedback we get from its surveys of students attending these schools, he said.
“It is their opinions that college applicants often value the most, particularly on (or in the absence of) campus visits,” Franek said.
The Princeton Review’s school profiles and ranking lists in “The Best 378 Colleges” are posted at the Princeton Review website.