PHILADELPHIA, PA – According to The Princeton Review, Chestnut Hill College was named one of 226 institutions to its "Best in the Northeast" section of its Web site feature, "2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region." The feature, posted at http://www.princetonreview.com/best-regional-colleges.aspx, identifies schools that are recommended as "regional bests" across four locales: the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, and West. In total, 643 schools received this designation by The Princeton Review.
The 226 colleges chosen for its "Best in the Northeast" list are located in eleven states: Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and the District of Columbia. Collectively, the 643 colleges named "regional best(s)" constitute about 25 percent of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges.
Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's senior vice president of publishing, said "We chose Chestnut Hill College and the other terrific schools we recommended as our 'regional best' colleges mainly for their excellent academic programs. From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite. We also take into account what students at the schools reported to us. Only schools that permit us to independently survey their students are eligible to be considered for our regional 'best' lists."
For this project, The Princeton Review asks students attending the schools to rate their own schools on several issues -- from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food -- and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life. Comments from surveyed students are quoted in the school profiles on The Princeton Review site. The profiles also have a "Survey Says" list that reveals topics about which students surveyed at the school were in highest agreement.
The schools in The Princeton Review’s "2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region" Web site section are also rated in six categories by The Princeton Review. The ratings, which appear on the school profiles, are scores on a scale of 60 to 99. The Princeton Review tallied these scores based on institutional data it obtained from the colleges in 2012-13 and/or student survey data. The rating score categories include: Academics, Admissions Selectivity, Financial Aid, Fire Safety, Quality of Life, and Green. The Princeton Review explains the criteria for each rating score on its site at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-ratings.aspx
The Princeton Review does not rank the 643 colleges in its "2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region" list hierarchically or by region or in various categories. However, some schools in this list that also appear in The Princeton Review book, "The Best 378 Colleges: 2014 Edition" may appear on some of the Princeton Review ranking lists of "top 20 colleges" in 62 categories that are unique to that book. They are based entirely on the Company's surveys of students at the 378 schools in the book.
