Berea College named “a best in the southeast” by The Princeton Review


Berea College is one of the best colleges in the southeast according to the nationally known education services company, The Princeton Review.  It is one of 135 institutions The Princeton Review recommends in its “Best in the Southeast” section of its website feature, “2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region,” that posted August 1, 2011 on PrincetonReview.com. This is the fourth time Berea has been recognized as one of the publication’s best colleges.

“The strength of the Princeton Review’s ratings of colleges and universities is its attempt to include student voices and personal visits to the schools they assess,” says Berea College President Larry Shinn. “Berea College is proud to be included in this ranking for its academic quality and the education of students for lives of service.”

Says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publisher, “We’re pleased to recommend Berea College to users of our site as one of the best schools to earn their undergrad degree.  We chose it and the other terrific institutions we name as ‘regional best’ colleges mainly for their excellent academic programs.   From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite.  We also take into account what students at the schools reported to us about their campus experiences at them on our 80-question student survey for this project.   Only schools that permit us to independently survey their students are eligible to be considered for our regional ‘best’ lists.”

The 134 colleges The Princeton Review chose for its “Best in the Southeast” designations are located in twelve states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.  The Princeton Review also designated 220 colleges in the Northeast, 153 in the Midwest, and 121 in the West as best in their locales on the company’s “2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region” lists.  Collectively, the 629 colleges named “regional best(s)” constitute about 25% of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.

For this project, The Princeton Review asks students attending the schools to rate their own schools on several issues — from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food — and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life.  Comments from surveyed students are quoted in the school profiles on The Princeton Review site.

The Princeton Review does not rank the 629 colleges in its “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region” list hierarchically or by region or in various categories.   However, some schools in this list that also appear in The Princeton Review book, “The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition” may appear on some of the Princeton Review ranking lists of “top 20 colleges” in 62 categories that are unique to that book.  They are based entirely on the Company’s surveys of students at the 376 schools in the book.

Categories: News
Tags: Berea College, Princeton Review, ranking

Berea College, the first interracial and coeducational college in the South, focuses on learning, labor and service. The College only admits academically promising students with limited financial resources—primarily from Kentucky and Appalachia—but welcomes students from 41 states and 76 countries. Every Berea student receives a Tuition Promise Scholarship, which means no Berea student pays for tuition. Berea is one of nine federally recognized Work Colleges, so students work 10 hours or more weekly to earn money for books, housing and meals. The College’s motto, “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth,” speaks to its inclusive Christian character.