Pitt, Pitt-Bradford Are Only PA Public Schools in Princeton Review’s 2012 The Best Value Colleges

The University of Pittsburgh’s Pittsburgh and Bradford campuses are the only Pennsylvania institutions to be named “Best Value” public schools of higher education by The Princeton Review in its book titled The Best Value Colleges: 2012 Edition, which is out this month and features profiles of 75 public and 75 private colleges and universities with detailed information about campus culture, facilities, and financial aid offerings. The profiles also appear on a special area of The Princeton Review’s Web site, at http://www.princetonreview.com/best-value-colleges.aspx.

The Princeton Review selected its “Best Value Colleges” schools based on institutional data and student opinion surveys collected from 650 colleges and universities the company regards as the nation’s academically best undergraduate institutions. The selection process included an analysis of more than 30 data points broadly covering academics, cost, and financial aid. Cost and financial aid data came from the Company’s fall 2011 surveys of school administrators. Data on academics came from its fall 2010 through fall 2011 surveys of school administrators. Data from students attending the schools over these years included their assessments of their professors and their satisfaction with their financial aid awards.

In The Princeton Review profile of Pitt, students are quoted as praising the University as a treasure of opportunity and scholasticism with “brilliant professors doing fantastic things in their fields.” Also, according to quoted students, “Administrators and professors are both surprisingly eager to involve students and are sincerely interested in our happiness and success.” In summary, students say in the profile, “Pitt provides all the resources of a large research university (which it is), but [it] also retains a small college atmosphere with its Honors College to provide the best opportunities for its students,” and one of the benefits of being a major research university is that research opportunities abound and “there is definitely a professor willing to take on pretty much anyone.”

Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s Senior Vice President/Publisher and lead author of The Best Value Colleges: 2012 Edition, said “We commend all of the extraordinary colleges on our 2012 ‘Best Value Colleges’ list for all they are doing to keep costs down and/or offer generous aid to applicants with financial need—all while maintaining excellent academic programs.”

The “Best Value Colleges” list and information about the schools are also posted on a dedicated area of USA TODAY.com, which has been The Princeton Review’s online publishing partner for this project since 2009. USA TODAY’s site (http://bestvaluecolleges.usatoday.com) features an exclusive database that allows users to view in-depth details about the schools.  Users can explore criteria, including cost of attendance and financial aid data, enrollment size, and location.

The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is not affiliated with Princeton University, and it is not a magazine.