Princeton Review Lists UW Among Nation's Best Colleges

Aug. 25, 2005 -- The University of Wyoming is listed as one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education in The Princeton Review's 2006 edition of "The Best 361 Colleges." Only about 15 percent of American four-year colleges are featured in the book.

Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's vice president of publishing, says, "The main factor in our selection of schools in the book was our high regard for their academic programs. We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students at them, and visits to schools over the years.

"We also considered the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents we talk to and survey. Finally, we worked to have a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character."

Rankings are based on surveys of 110,000 students attending the colleges and universities in the book, with an average of 300 per school. College profiles include candid comments from students attending the selected schools.

"Sometimes it's hard to get too excited about college guidebooks and their rankings," says UW President Tom Buchanan, "but when you're being rated by your own students and they have a lot of positive things to say about the quality of their academic experience, as well as their lifestyle opportunities, you just have to be pleased.

"We know that UW has a lot to offer our students, and the surveys conducted for this Princeton Review guidebook just confirm what we, our alumni, and businesses that hire our graduates know," continues Buchanan. "The University of Wyoming is a very special institution of higher education."

Students praised the variety of academic and social opportunities at UW as well as the ability of students to take advantage of those opportunities in a small-college atmosphere. They also noted small class size, close student-teacher interactions, research opportunities for undergraduate students, constant upgrades to technology, and reasonable cost of attendance.

In 2003, The Princeton Review ranked UW as one the nation's "most connected campuses," based on the student/computer ratio, wireless access on campus, the breadth of the computer science curriculum and comments from students. The magazine also has frequently recognized UW's College of Law and M.B.A. programs as among the nation's best.

Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2005

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