Olin College Featured in Princeton Review’s “The Best 376 Colleges” 2012 Edition

Needham, MA (PRWEB) August 12, 2011

Olin College of Engineering 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" (Random House / Princeton Review). Olin is included in 13 of The Princeton Review's Top 20 Ranking lists, including "Best Classroom Experience" and "Professors Get High Marks."

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

"Olin is pleased and honored to be recognized again as one of the best colleges in the nation by Princeton Review," said Richard K. Miller, president of Olin College. "This recognition is emblematic of the quality of our students and our educational program. The Princeton Review's evaluation, based as it is on extensive student input, is indicative of a vibrant learning culture and an engaged community."

Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's Senior VP / Publisher and author of "The Best 376 Colleges," "We commend Olin for its outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our selection of schools for the book. Our choices are based on institutional data we collect about schools, our visits to schools over the years, feedback we gather from students attending the schools and the opinions of our staff and our 28-member National College Counselor Advisory Board. We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character."

In its profile on Olin, The Princeton Review praises the school for how well rounded Olin students are.

"Olin is unique among engineering schools in that the admission office really looks for more than just brains," notes the profile. "Things like social skills and eloquence are taken extremely seriously here. Students who exhibit creativity, passion and an entrepreneurial spirit are favored over their less adventurous peers."

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. The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list in the book and on its website.

Olin appears on the following ranking lists:

# 3 Best Classroom Experience

# 3 Students Study the Most

# 4 Professors Get High Marks

#4 Lots of Race/Class Interaction

#4 Easiest Campus to Get Around

# 8 Happiest Students

# 10 Town-Gown Relations are Great

# 10 Dorms Like Palaces

# 13 Best Quality of Life

#13 Dodgeball Targets

# 14 Stone-Cold Sober Schools

# 14 LGBT-Friendly

# 20 Best Career Services

In a "Survey Says" sidebar in the book's profile on Olin, The Princeton Review lists topics that Olin students surveyed for the book were in most agreement about in their answers to survey questions. The list includes: "students are happy," "different types of students interact" and "great computer facilities."

The schools in "The Best 376 Colleges" also have rating scores in eight categories that The Princeton Review tallies based on institutional data collected from the schools during the 2010-11 academic year and/or its student survey for the book. The ratings are scores on a scale of 60 to 99 and they appear in each school profile. Rating categories include: Academics, Admission, Selectivity, Financial Aid and Fire Safety. Among the ratings in the Olin profile are scores of 99 for Academics, 98 for Quality of Campus Life, 99 for Admission Selectivity and 99 for Financial Aid. Olin's Financial Aid score of 99 also earned it a spot on the Financial Aid Honor Roll. The Princeton Review explains the basis for each rating score in the book and at http://www.princetonreview.com/college/college-rankings.aspx.

The Princeton Review has posted the school profiles and ranking lists in "The Best 376 Colleges" at PrincetonReview.com.

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