Pitt Is Featured in The Princeton Review Guide, “The Best 378 Colleges”

The University of Pittsburgh is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review’s 2014 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 378 Colleges.”

Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the United States are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review’s flagship college guide.

“The University of Pittsburgh offers outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our choice of schools for the book,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s senior vice president, publisher, and author of “The Best 378 Colleges.”

“We base our selections primarily on data we obtain in our annual institutional data surveys,” Franek added. “We also take into account input we get from our staff, our 35-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, our personal visits to schools, and the wide range of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges academically or from 1 to 378 in any category. It does, however, provide an eight-category rating that measures how each school performs in areas such as Quality of Life and its “green” initiatives. Pitt received an excellent Quality of Life rating of 94 on a scale from 60 to 99. These ratings are based on results from both student surveys and institutional data.

“The Best 378 Colleges” also provides 62 ranking lists of the “top 20” colleges in various categories, ranging from students’ assessments of their professors as teachers to opinions about their financial aid packages. These ranking lists are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 126,000 students (about 333 per campus on average) attending the colleges. In those student-based category listings, Pitt ranked No. 7 in Best Health Services and No. 20 in Best Career Services.

The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-rankings.aspx.

The guide’s general profile on Pitt quotes Pitt students who praised the University’s “wide variety of quality academic programs,” and who said the majority of the school’s professors are “really passionate about the material” and willing to “do anything to assure the students know and understand the material.” Also lauded was the Swanson School of Engineering, which students called “great” and said the school “prepares it students for research, internship, and co-op opportunities from day one.” In addition, while the Pittsburgh campus has about 18,000 undergraduates, many students said Pitt “does everything in its power to make each student feel like more than just a number.”

The Princeton Review’s school profiles and ranking and rating lists in “The Best 378 Colleges” are posted at PrincetonReview.com.

The Princeton Review is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, tutoring, books, and other student resources.