UH Among Top Colleges According to The Princeton Review

University Included in 2014 Edition of “The Best 378 Colleges”

The University of Houston is one of the nation's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to the Princeton Review. The education services company features the school in the 2014 edition of its annual college guide, "The Best 378 Colleges" (Random House / Princeton Review), released this week.

“I’m proud that we continue to be recognized as one of the country’s top universities for undergraduate education,” said UH President Renu Khator.  “This confirms that our commitment to student success is producing tangible results. I’m particularly pleased with the positive reactions to our ongoing improvements in the quality of life on campus.”

Only 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book, which is the Princeton Review's flagship college guide. 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 62 categories based on The Princeton Review's surveys of more than 100,000 students.

"The University of Houston offers outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our choice of schools for the book,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's senior vice president and publisher/author of "The Best 378 Colleges."

“We base our selections primarily on data we obtain in our annual institutional data surveys,” he said.  “We also take into account input we get from our staff, our 35-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, our personal visits to schools, and the wide range of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools. We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.”

In its profile on UH, the Princeton Review praises it for its "ethnically and culturally diverse student body."

“One can come and grow socially, politically and intellectually,” said a student, who was surveyed by the Princeton Review.

The Princeton Review also applauds UH’s talented faculty members and credits professors as being “always prepared and making lectures interesting through effective teaching strategies.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges academically or from 1 to 378 in any category.  Instead, it reports in the book 62 ranking lists of top 20 colleges in various categories. The lists are entirely based on the Princeton Review's survey of 126,000 students (about 333 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 at them.  Topics range from assessments of their professors as teachers to opinions about their financial aid. A new ranking list in this year's edition of the book names the schools at which students gave their school's science/lab facilities the strongest ratings.  The Princeton Review explains the basis for each ranking list at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-rankings.aspx.

"The Best 378 Colleges" is the 22nd edition of the Princeton Review's annual "Best Colleges" book.  It is one of 150 Princeton Review books published by Random House in a line that also includes test-prep guides for the ACT, SAT, SAT Subject Tests, and AP exams, plus "The Complete Book of Colleges," and "Paying for College Without Going Broke."

The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is an education services company known for its test-prep courses, tutoring, books, and other student resources. Headquartered in Framingham, MA, the company is not affiliated with Princeton University.

 

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About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized by The Princeton Review as one of the nation’s best colleges for undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation’s fourth-largest city, UH serves more than 40,700 students in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region in the country. For more information about UH, visit the university’s newsroom at http://www.uh.edu/news-events/