Again this year, Catawba College is one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features the school in the new 2015 edition of its annual college guide, "The Best 379 Colleges," that hit newsstands on August 5.
Only about 15% of America's 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review's flagship college guide. It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in the book in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review's surveys of 130,000 students attending the colleges. The 80-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them. Topics range from assessments of their professors as teachers to opinions about their school's library, career services, and student body's political leanings. The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-rankings.aspx.
Catawba students whom the Company surveyed said of themselves that "it's difficult to describe the typical student, because there is such diversity at Catawba College." Another noted, "Catawba has almost anyone you can imagine, it's a wide array of different cultures of people that go here." One student explained the college was "a place where you can truly discover who you are through exposure to a variety of thoughts and perspectives."
In a "Survey Says" sidebar in the book's profile on Catawba, The Princeton Review lists topics that Catawba students surveyed for the book were in most agreement about in their answers to survey questions. The list includes: "Students get along with local community," "Very little drug use," and "Theatre is popular."
Says Rob Franek, Princeton Review's Senior VP / Publisher and author of "The Best 379 Colleges," "Catawba College offers outstanding academics, which is the chief reason we selected it for the book. We base our choices primarily on data we obtain in our annual surveys of administrators at these schools and at hundreds of other colleges. We take into account input we get from our staff, our 27-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, our personal visits to schools, and the sizable amount of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools. We also work to maintain a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character."
"The Best 379 Colleges" is the 23rd edition of The Princeton Review's annual "Best Colleges" book. The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, tutoring, books, and other student resources. Headquartered in Natick, MA, the Company is not affiliated with Princeton University.
