Hope College is one of the best colleges and universities in the Midwest according to The Princeton Review.
The education services company selected Hope as one of 158 institutions it profiles in its "Best in the Midwest" section of its Web site feature "2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region" that posted July 27, 2009 and is located at www.PrincetonReview.com.
Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's vice president for publishing, "We chose Hope and the other terrific schools we recommend as our 'regional best' colleges primarily for their excellent academic programs. We also work to have our roster of 'regional best' colleges feature a range of institutions by size, selectivity, character and locale. We choose the schools based on institutional data we collect from several hundred schools in each region, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of independent and high school-based college advisors whose recommendations we invite. We also take into account what each school's customers - their students - report to us about their campus experiences at them on our 80-question student survey."
The 158 colleges The Princeton Review chose for this year's "Best in the Midwest" designations are located in 12 states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The Princeton Review also designated 218 colleges in the Northeast, 123 in the West, and 141 in the Southeast as best in their locales on the company's "2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region" section on its site. The 640 colleges named "regional best(s)" represent only about 25 percent (one out of four) of the nation's 2,500 four-year colleges.
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in its "2010 Best Colleges Region by Region" Web site section. The Princeton Review survey for this project asks students 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 pepper each Princeton Review college profile on its site. Student reflections included in Hope's profile note that Hope promotes "a Christian, academically rigorous curriculum with a small, friendly atmosphere and plenty of things to do and ways to plug in"; that "Hope excels in every area and is well-known nationwide, making job placement very high"; and that "the opportunities for student involvement with on-campus activities are just unlimited and taken advantage of by so many students. Seriously, it's kind of strange how involved the typical Hope student is."
The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is known for its tutoring and classroom test preparation courses, books, and college and graduate school admission services. Its corporate headquarters is in Framingham, Mass., and editorial offices are in New York City. It is not affiliated with PrincetonUniversity and it is not a magazine.