The 2022 edition of “The Best 387 Colleges” guide has recognized Elon for consistent excellence in college operations, career services, its campus, performing arts productions and residential facilities.
In a special 30th anniversary of its college guide, The Princeton Review has recognized Elon University for excellence as one of the country’s best-run colleges as well as for the high quality of its academic and student life programs. The 2022 edition of “The Best 387 Colleges,” released Tuesday, Aug. 31, ranks the top 13 percent of the country’s 3,000 four-year colleges and universities.
This year the publication focused on producing “Great Lists” based upon the historical appearance of colleges and universities on The Princeton Review’s lists during the past three decades, with priority given to consistency as well as the numerical rank on an individual list. Rather than the 60-plus lists The Princeton Review has recently included in its publication, the number was narrowed to 26 categories this year. Schools were not ranked in the individual categories this year.
The changes were due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited student access to on-campus offerings. The Princeton Review typically bases its annual lists on a nationwide survey of 143,000 students as well as information gathered from college administrators.
“We are delighted to shine this deserving light on the exceptional colleges that made our ‘Great Lists,’” said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review and author of “The Best 387 Colleges.” “Their placement on these lists goes beyond our high opinion of the colleges: their inclusion in our ‘Best Colleges’ guide bears witness to that. Their ‘Great List’ designations are totally due to the high ratings the college’s very own students have given them over years of student surveys we have conducted for the book and its annual ‘top 20 colleges’ ranking lists in 62 categories.”
Fifty-six percent of the schools included in “The Best 387 Colleges” were included in one or more of the “Great Lists.” Elon was included on the following five lists:
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Great Career Services
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Great College Dorms
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Great College Theater
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Great-Run Colleges
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Most Beautiful Campus
Elon has previously been ranked #1 by The Princeton Review for the “Most Popular Study Abroad Program,” a category that was not included in this year’s publication. The pandemic has had a widespread impact on college and university study abroad programs due to travel restrictions and public health concerns.
“We look forward to returning to our traditional and robust student survey process in the 2021-22 academic year ahead,” Franek said.
The guide includes a profile of Elon that includes input from its students in areas including academics, the student body and campus life. Students pointed to the opportunities at Elon including experiential learning, “great resources for research,” “fantastic study abroad programs” that set the university up to graduate “well-rounded and passionate future leaders.”
This is the 17th year in a row that Elon has appeared in The Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” guide. “The Best 387 Colleges” is the 30th annual edition of The Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” publication and is one of 150 Princeton Review books in a line published by Penguin Random House. It has been featured on NBC “TODAY” more than a dozen times and is referenced by reporters in publications from Inside Higher Education to The Wall Street Journal.