Cornell listed in Princeton Review

Cornell College is one of the country’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features the school in the new 2012 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 376 Colleges,” published Aug. 2.

Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and three colleges outside the U.S.A. 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.

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book academically or from 1 to 376 in any category.  Instead it reports in the book 62 ranking lists of “top 20” colleges in various categories. The lists are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 122,000 students (about 325 per campus on average) attending the colleges in the book and not on The Princeton Review’s opinion of the schools.  The 80-question survey asks students to rate their own schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them.  Topics range from assessments of their professors to opinions about their financial aid and campus food.  Other ranking lists are based on student reports about their student body’s political leanings, race/class relations, and LGBT community acceptance.  The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list in the book and at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-rankings.aspx