With outstanding scores for its professors and its overall academic environment, New College of Florida was again named one of the country’s top undergraduate colleges by The Princeton Review.
New College was among the 15 percent of American colleges to make the 2017 edition of the Review’s guidebook, “The Best 381 Colleges.” The book does not rank the colleges, but rates each in eight categories.
For the overall “Academics” rating, New College received 96 points out of a possible 99. The score measures “how hard students work, and how much they get back,” the Review explains.
For the “Professors Interesting” rating, based on students’ reviews of their teachers, New College received 98 points out of 99.
“New College’s outstanding academics are the chief reason we chose it for this book and we strongly recommend it to applicants,” said Robert Franek, the Princeton Review’s senior vice president and publisher, and the author of “The Best 381 Colleges.”
The Princeton Review also views New College as one of the best deals in undergraduate education. In February 2016, the Review named New College as one of the country’s “Top 50 Colleges That Pay You Back,” for its combination of low tuition, strong academics and graduates’ career success.
“The Best 381 Colleges” is based on surveys of students, college administrators and Princeton Review staff visits to colleges. It quotes extensively from students’ reviews. Some examples of New College students’ comments:
- New College “provides challenging courses for highly self-motivated students who want a large amount of control over their academic choices.”
- Students receive a “rounded education that enables them to critically and pragmatically examine and understand the world in which we live.”
- “It is very popular for groups of students to get together to talk about class readings outside of the classroom, usually at the college coffee shop, as a means of socializing.”
- The setting “encourages(s) a love of learning, whether it be academic, political or hobby-related.”
The guidebook also includes many “Top 20” lists, typically addressing quirky aspects of student life. New College’s community-minded students led to an 11th-place position on the “Politically Active Students” list, while their academics-first mindset led to a 17th-place score on the “There’s a Game?” list. New College received an overall score of 91 on the guidebook’s “Quality of Life” rating.
“The Best 381 Colleges” guidebook, published by Penguin Random House, will be available in stores on Aug. 30. The school profiles and ranking lists in “The Best 381 Colleges” are posted at PrincetonReview.com/best381