Princeton Review publishes a guide book every year of the top colleges in the country. This year it included 379. The top 20 rankings are created by the students attending the colleges who answer questionnaires. Whitman students are always enthusiastic. This year the rankings are:
Best Classroom Experience #6
Best College Library #8
Best Health Services #9
Best Quality of Life #9
Best Science Lab Facilities #18
Easiest Campus to Get Around #4
Everyone Plays Intramural Sports #6
Happiest Students #11
Impact Schools #20
Most Accessible Professors #12
Professors Get High Marks #19
Their Students Love These Colleges # 13
This is great stuff, but just to clarify, it came out last August. New rankings should be out in a month or so.
Opps! I guess I missed a year. Thanks, Rayrick.
I bet Whitman shows up on some of the same lists this year, as it appears Whitman is appealing in many different ways. I also like some of the Princeton Review ratings such as “professors interesting” and “professors accessible”. Whitman was around 98 on both in the 2014 edition, which is matched by only a few other schools (Carleton, Dartmouth, Grinnell come to mind). I’m so pleased my son is starting Whitman in a couple months (although I’ll miss him!!).
The lists don’t change much from year to year. I have a feeling they use some sort of running mean of the last 4 years of their surveys or something so things don’t windshield-wiper around too much between successive editions. But I do find Whitman’s dominance of these lists to be very attractive. My daughter goes to perhaps the only other school out there that’s as well represented on the “good” lists as Whitman–Olin College of Engineering–and we’ve been extremely satisfied with her college experience. If S ends up at Whitman, we will have successfully completed the PR-list two-fer!
Eertbarc, I hope your son has a great experience at Whitman. We enjoyed going to family weekends and developed a great fondness for Walla Walla; the campus in its Fall colors is stunning. Son took a geology class the first semester of his freshman year with a very charismatic professor who made the subject jump to life, that class was so captivating he went on to major in geology. Over the 4 years we met many of his professors and were impressed with their expertise and openness, and it was evident that they actually knew and cared for their students. It doesn’t surprise me that the students rate them highly.
Thanks bopambo! We visited twice and were extremely impressed. Also we have friends who are on the faculty. They think there’s not weak department in the whole school. My son fell in love on the first visit and the feeling didn’t subside on the second. I love your story about your son becoming captivated by the Geology experience! To me that’s what a great liberal arts experience is about. You can sample different areas and see what stirs your passions. I am a Wesleyan grad so I entered this process biased, I admit, but I believe my son is truly in the best school for him. If you hang around this sight I’ll keep you posted after he’s been there a while.
Nice numbers. School is very comfy while also intense. Quality of life is very decent. Nice post, bo.