APPLETON, WIS. — Accessible professors, an outstanding theatre program and great classroom experiences helped earn Lawrence University inclusion in the 2009 edition of The Princeton Review’s annual book on undergraduate education, “The Best 368 Colleges.”
The just-released book includes only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges, plus two Canadian colleges, and features two-page profiles of the schools along with student survey-based ranking lists of top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories.
“We chose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics,” says Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s vice president of publishing. “We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them and our visits to schools over the years. We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents we hear from year-long.”
Lawrence was cited among the top 20 institutions nationally in three of the book’s student-survey categories: fourth in most accessible professors, 12th in best college theatre program, up from 17th in the same category last year and 13th in best classroom experience. Lawrence wasn’t ranked in either the accessible professors or classroom experience category in 2008.
The ranking lists in “The Best 368 Colleges” are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 120,000 students — about 325 per campus — attending the 368 colleges profiled in the book. A college’s appearance on any of the book’s 60 lists is a result of a high consensus among the surveyed students on that subject. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book 1 to 368 in any single category.
“It’s always nice to see the things that you believe to be true about your institution verified, as it were, by a third party,” said Ken Anselment, director of admissions. “We know that we are rare among American colleges with our focus on individualized learning. The Princeton Review’s rankings on our accessible faculty and great classroom experiences seem to support that. With a highly-ranked theatre program on top of all of it, we are delighted.”
On a scale of 60-99 — with 99 being the highest — the book gave Lawrence a rating of 92 in its quality of life category, which measures students’ satisfaction with their lives outside the classroom. Among some of the factors considered were the beauty, safety, and location of the campus; the comfort of dorms; the quality of food; the ease of getting around campus; the friendliness of fellow students; and the quality of the school’s relationship with the local community.
In its profile of the college, The Princeton Review defined the Lawrence experience as “intense academics, extreme involvement in extracurricular activities and a near-obsession with music.” The profile also quotes extensively from students surveyed for the book, who describe Lawrence as “an intellectual place, as any good college should be. People are all brilliant in their own ways here and it’s fantastic to find out how.” Others cited the student body as friendly and cooperative, resulting in “an intellectually stimulating — not academically cutthroat — environment that fosters both academic and personal growth.”
The book’s entire ranking lists can be found at www.PrincetonReview.com.
