<p>How accurate is the unhappiness and happiness rating lists on princetonreview.com </p>
<p>How accurate are the whole ranking lists, like best food and best campus.</p>
<p>anyone else know?</p>
<p>anyone know?</p>
<p>Having attended 2 universities, my husband also 2, and my son attending one now, I found it amazing how the Princeton Review 367 Best Colleges book was able to accurately sum up all 5 schools, that our family has personally experienced, in just a few short paragraphs. I haven't looked at the online version, but it is probably similar. The best way to really get a feel for your prospective school is to spend an overnight and attend a few classes. Good luck.</p>
<p>So it is accurate about 4 schools as of 25 years ago?</p>
<p>PR is not at all accurate in any way. The only accurate way to rate a campus is to actually visit for a 2-3 day stretch.</p>
<p>Princeton Review is only as good as its samples (because that's where the ratings come from.) Sometimes the samples are relatively small, and may not be scientifically selected. HOWEVER, because they do run the samples yearly, I think they have a very good, even excellent general feel for the campuses they report on. Throw out the rankings (which I think are far more accurate than those USNWR, which have no student input whatsoever), and I think you'll find the comments extraordinarily salient.</p>
<p>Most accurate (regarding student views of academic quality and quality of campus life) are the surveys conducted by the Consortium on Financing of Higher Education, of 31 of the top privates. They do not use samples, but survey approximately 60% of student bodies, with the colleges paying for their surveys themselves, and they track the results over time (beginning in 1992, I think.)</p>
<p>Harvard ranks 27th out of 31.</p>
<p>Yes, Bandit, believe it or not we do keep in touch with our Alma Maters and they have not changed all that much in 20 years. Preppy schools are still preppy, artsy schools are still artsy and liberal schools are still liberal. A few new buildings and some new technology, but all in all the schools are jnot that different than they were way back when. Pretty scary. Also in visiting the 15 or so schools when my son was looking, I found that the Princeton Review Best 367 Book, was quite accurate in its decriptions. There is nothing published that is going to be totally accurate, because the sampling pools are not large enough, but for the general feel and overall quality of the schools that I saw, I think that the PR synopsis of the schools was pretty darn close. Once again best way to fact find is a campus visit or overnight stay. Others will debate this I'm sure...</p>
<p>i have noticed the descriptions to be SPOT on, I probably have visited and hung out at over 20 schools for 2 days or more and no guide has been more accurate.</p>
<p>I also found it pretty accurate for those schools which we researched further.....and a lot more fun to read when trying to decide where to look than a lot of the other books. Of course you have to take it all with a grain of salt, but IMO they do pretty well.</p>
<p>well, they IMO they portray certain aspects of schools pretty well. but other aspects that may shape individual experiences at schools, they leave out altogether. they are not a comprehensive source. i've decided maybe looking at different subcultures at a school is more accurate than trying to categorize all the students together when dealing with the issue of student body, but even that is far from comprehensive...</p>
<p>Well a school I was thinking of attentding ranked #4 in unhappiest students and that really scared me to not going.</p>
<p>I cant go and visit the school since it so far and I really have alot of other schools. But this was a big one.</p>
<p>Princeton Review tends to be pretty rarely updated, in my experience. Their description of my school (supposedly one of the least happiest) includes information that has been incorrect for the past 3 years.</p>