The Princeton Review has named Hollins University one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education.
Hollins is included in the new 2016 edition of the education services company’s flagship college guide, The Best 380 Colleges. In addition, the publication ranks the university 19th in the country in the category, “Best College Theater.”
According to The Princeton Review, only about 15% of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book. Published annually since 1992, it includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in the book in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of students attending the colleges.
“Hollins’ outstanding academics are the chief reason we chose it for this book and we strongly recommend it to applicants,” says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP-Publisher and author of The Best 380 Colleges. “We make our selections primarily based on data we collect through our annual surveys of administrators at several hundred four-year colleges. Additionally, we give considerable weight to observations from our school visits, opinions of our staff and our 23-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, and an unparalleled amount of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools. We also keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.”
In its profile of Hollins, The Princeton Review notes, “Students at Hollins ‘adore the school.’ The women of Hollins describe themselves as ‘empowered, enthusiastic,’ ‘worldly, aware,’ ‘strong, and confident.’” Underscoring Hollins Theatre’s high national ranking in The Best 380 Colleges, the profile quotes students as stating that the program “is excellent, and the shows are always worth going to.”
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges from 1 to 380 in any category. Instead it uses students’ ratings of their schools to compile 62 ranking lists of top 20 colleges in the book in various categories. The lists in this edition are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 136,000 students (about 358 per campus on average) attending the colleges. The 80-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences. Topics range from their assessments of their professors as teachers to opinions about their school’s library, career services, and student body’s political leanings. The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list at http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/ranking-methodology.
The Best 380 Colleges is the 24th edition of The Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges book.
