WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Monmouth University 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 new 2018 edition of its college guide, “The Best 382 Colleges,” which was released today.
Only about 15 percent of the 2,500 U.S. four-year colleges and two colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book, which is one of the Princeton Review’s most popular guides. Published annually since 1992, it has detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores in several categories.
“We chose Monmouth for this book because it offers outstanding academics,” said Robert Franek, the Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief and author of “The Best 382 Colleges.”
“Our selections are primarily based on our surveys of administrators at several hundred four-year colleges. We also visit dozens of colleges each year and give considerable weight to opinions of our staff and our 24-member National College Counselor Advisory Board. Most importantly, we look at valuable feedback we get from each school’s customers – our surveys of students attending them. We also keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.”
In its profile, the publication praises Monmouth University for its “holistic approach” to the admissions process and quotes extensively from students the company surveyed for the book. “There is a real sense of community at Monmouth,” said one student. “Though everyone is here to complete their own individual goals, everyone is always looking out for one another.”
Another student singled out the university’s faculty as its “greatest asset,” saying that professors “extend their connections to students and they truly exhibit compassion [and] concern for students beyond their courses.”
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges but the included schools do have scores in eight categories that are tallied using institutional data collected during the 2016-2017 academic year and/or its student survey for the book. Rating scores are on a scale of 60 to 99. Monmouth received high marks for Quality of Life (87/99), Green practices (78/99) and Fire Safety (98/99). The Princeton Review explains the basis for each rating score in the book and on its web site.
“The Best 382 Colleges” is the 26th annual edition of the Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” book. It is one of 150 Princeton Review books published by Penguin Random House. This is the 13th year that Monmouth University has been included in the “Best Colleges” guide.