Roanoke featured in Princeton Review's "Best 386 Colleges"

Roanoke College is one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review, which features Roanoke in “The Best 386 Colleges” (Penguin Random House), the 2021 edition of its annual college guidebook, released today.

Roanoke College also is included in the guidebook’s lists of Great Schools for Business/Finance Majors, Great Schools for Computer Science/Computer Engineering Majors and Great Schools for Psychology Majors.

Only about 14% of America’s 2,800 four-year colleges are profiled in the book. The company chooses colleges for the book based on data it annually collects from college administrators about their institutions’ academic offerings. The Princeton Review also considers data it gathers from its surveys of college students who rate and report on various aspects of their campus and community experiences. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges from 1 to 386 in any category.  

"We salute Roanoke College for its outstanding academics and we are truly pleased to recommend it to prospective applicants searching for their personal ‘best-fit’ college,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief and lead author of the book.

In its profile of Roanoke College, The Princeton Review quotes extensively from Roanoke students who were surveyed for the guidebook. Among the student comments:

• With its small class sizes, Roanoke College “aims to equip you for the real world, but also makes you feel at home, like you belong.”
• “Roanoke College does not hand out A’s. You really have to apply yourself, and grades really reflect your effort.”
• Most students agree that Roanoke “[excels] in academics and learning how to relate to what is learned in the classroom to real world jobs.”
• In general, professors earn universal praise for being “approachable, knowledgeable,” and “willing and able to work with every student.”

In the "Survey Says" profile section of Roanoke College, The Princeton Review lists topics that students were most in agreement about in their answers to survey questions. For Roanoke, that list includes:

• “Students are happy”
• “Great library”
• “Recreation facilities are great”
• “Internships are widely available”
• “Students love Salem, VA.”

The Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” guide has published annually since 1992. Roanoke College has appeared each year in The Princeton Review since the 2012 edition.

In a news release announcing the book’s release, Franek noted the impact that COVID-19 has had on institutions of higher education.

“COVID-19 has presented sobering challenges for school administrators and educators, as well as daunting decisions for students and their parents,” he said. “What impressed us in our administrator survey findings is the flexibility many colleges built into their reopening plans, especially those giving students options to study remotely or on campus with health and safety protocols in place.”