A number of schools across the D.C., Maryland and Virginia area made The Princeton Review’s “The Best 385 Colleges” list.
Among them are 16 schools in Virginia, 11 in Maryland and five in the District.
The list includes American University, Catholic University, George Washington University, Georgetown University and Howard University in the District. In Virginia, George Mason University, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech made the list. In Maryland, the list included the University of Maryland and the Naval Academy.
The Princeton Review ranks colleges in categories such as academics and administration, politics and quality of life, based on surveys of 140,000 students, and some schools in the area placed highly on those lists. Some of the details:
- St. John’s College, in Annapolis, Maryland, ranked No. 5 on the list of colleges with the best classroom experience, which The Princeton Review based on students’ ratings of professors, lab facilities, the amount of in-class discussion and the percentage of classes they attend. They also ranked No. 5 in student assessments of professors, No. 10 for the most accessible professors and No. 17 in the amount of time students reported they studied outside of class.
- The U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, ranked No. 5 on the list of schools with the best lab facilities; Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, ranked No. 11.
- Goucher College, in Baltimore, came out at the top of the list for the most popular study-abroad programs.
- The College of William and Mary ranked sixth on the list of school with the best libraries, while the University of Virginia came in at No. 19. William and Mary also had the sixth-happiest students, while the University of Richmond came in ninth.
- Virginia Tech rated No. 5 on the list of campuses with the best food, while James Madison University, in Harrisonburg, Virginia, came in eighth and the University of Richmond ranked 12th.
- The University of Richmond ranked fifth for most beautiful campus.
- American University, in D.C., came in at No. 5 for the school whose students thought best of the city it was in. The naval academy came in fourth for — well, being the opposite of a party school.
- And on the list of overall quality of life, the University of Richmond came in at No. 10 and William and Mary ranked No. 12.
Now the bad news:
George Mason University, in Fairfax, Virginia, ranked No. 13 on the list of schools with the worst professors, as determined by student ratings, as well as the 18th-least beautiful campus. Salisbury University, in Salisbury, Maryland, had the fifth-least accessible professors. The naval academy came in fourth for the unhappiest students, while George Mason came in 11th.
