Top Parties and Professors: Princeton Review Releases Annual College Rankings
Aug 22, 2006 — -- It's that time of year again.
Summer's over, and it's back to school.
For some, it's also time to start applying to college.
If you're preparing for the next step in education or just like to get competitive about schools, the Princeton Review has released its annual list of the country's top colleges.
The survey quizzes 115,000 students at 361 top colleges across the country, investigating everything from top academics to top parties, best libraries and, of course, top food.
The University of Chicago heads this year's list for the best overall academic experience for undergraduates, edging out Stanford and Rice for the top spot.
According to the book's author, Robert Franek, "[The survey] takes into account the SAT scores but then says what is the experience of the student likely to be in the class? Are the professors interesting? We think the marriage of the two is best."
"We consider these colleges the best in the nation," Franek said, "but the real challenge for the applicants and parents is finding the college that's best for them."
To help out prospective students, the survey asked undergraduates about a variety of measures that determined the quality of life on campus.
Aside from obvious categories like "best professors," or "toughest to get into," the survey also boasts rankings on "most beautiful campus," "gay community most accepted" and "race/class relations friendliest."
The rankings even go so far as to identify the college where kids are the "happiest."
"These are really interesting ways to look at a university," Franek said, "because the kids do know a lot about what's going on."
And where are students most content this year?
Brown takes the cake.
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