Princeton Review’s Best 373 Colleges for 2011

The Princeton Review releases its annual college guidebook, “The Best 373 Colleges: 2011 Edition” (Random House / Princeton Review, $22.99). The book will go on sale tomorrow.

Some of the ranking factors are:

· Best Career Services – Northeastern University (MA)
· Best Classroom Experience – Mount Holyoke College (MA)
· Most Accessible Profs – U.S. Air Force Academy (CO)
· Most Conservative Students – Texas A&M University
· Most Liberal Students – Hampshire College (MA)
· Most Politically Active Students – American University (DC)
· Least Religious Students – Sarah Lawrence College (NY)
· Happiest Students – Brown University (RI)
· Lots of Race/Class Interaction– University of Miami (FL)
· LGBT-Friendly – Emerson College (MA)
· Top Party Schools –University of Georgia
· Top Stone-Cold Sober Schools – Brigham Young University (UT)
· Everyone Plays Intramural Sports – University of Notre Dame (IN)
· Best Athletic Facilities – University of Maryland – College Park
· Best Town-Gown Relations – Clemson University (SC)

While parties are definitely a part of the University life, it’s rather dumb to pick for example the University of Georgia, just because it is allegedly the school with the best parties. If you are more interested in drinking, you could pick Providence for the most hard liquor on campus or Ohio University for the most beer on campus. This list looks to me like a lame attempt to make some third class schools look more interesting in order to lure in students.

At least I could not easily find the University of California, Los Angeles or Ivy League schools like Harvard University, Princeton University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale University. At least one of the Ivy League schools, Brown University, is on the list.