Question: I want to attend a college with strong academics. At the same time, I'd like to find a college with a beautiful campus and great food. Is there any place where I can easily get this type of information? -- Applying to Colleges
Answer: There are all kinds of college ranking lists. The ones that are likely to give you the names of schools with the information you would like are Princeton Review's lists. They have listings of the top 20 schools in 62 categories. These lists can be found at www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx as well as in the book "The Best 379 Colleges."
The purpose of these listings is not to crown one college "best" overall, but to give applicants the resources and campus feedback they need to choose, get into, pay for and graduate with a job from the college that's best for them. All of the colleges offer outstanding academics.
The rankings are based on surveys of 130,000 students asking them 80 questions about their school's academics, administration, student body and themselves. Here are some of the results that you might find very interesting.
- -Best-Run College: Elon University (NC)
- -Best College Library: University of Chicago (IL)
- -Best Campus Food: Virginia Tech (VA)
- -Best College Dorms: Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
- -Most Beautiful Campus: Colgate University (NY)
- -Most Conservative Students: Texas A&M University (TX)
- -Most Liberal Students: Sarah Lawrence College (NY)
- -LGBT-Friendly: Stanford University (CA)
- -Students Pack the Stadium: University of Kansas (KS)
- -Top Party Schools: Syracuse University (NY)
- -Their Students Love These Colleges: Claremont McKenna College (CA)