MACON/ATLANTA – Mercer University for the 20th consecutive year is among the nation’s best institutions for undergraduates according to The Princeton Review®.
The education services company features Mercer in the 31st edition of its annual college guide, The Best 388 Colleges, released online today and in print Aug. 23.
The Princeton Review chose the colleges for the book based on data it annually collects from surveys of 2,000 college administrators about their institutions’ academic offerings. For its selection of profiled schools for the book, the company also reviews data from its surveys of college students attending the schools.
Only about 14% of America’s 2,700 four-year colleges and universities are profiled in the book.
“We salute Mercer for its outstanding academics and its many other impressive offerings. We’re delighted to recommend it as an ideal choice for students searching for their ‘best-fit’ college,” said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review and lead author of The Best 388 Colleges.
The Best 388 Colleges’ profiles give readers information on admission and financial aid application requirements, enrollment statistics, quotes from surveyed students about the school’s academics and student body, and The Princeton Review’s “Inside Word” about the school.
In the profile on Mercer, Princeton Review editors and students surveyed praise the University’s “small community coupled with stellar professors and academic support,” which provide a high “student to opportunity ratio” in areas such as undergraduate research, work-based learning, community service and extracurriculars.
Faculty “enjoy the teaching process and want to see students do well” and “really care deeply about the students,” while students “want to make change, to do well,” and “numerous communities and groups of people are represented” among the student body.
The University is “well-connected,” and “the Mercer name carries weight around the state when looking for job opportunities,” according to the two-page profile.
The Princeton Review does not rank the institutions in the book from 1-388 but provides 50 separate ranking lists naming the top 25 schools in various categories based on surveys of 160,000 students at the 388 schools in the book.
Mercer’s ranking lists include No. 8 among “Everyone Plays Intramural Sports” and No. 15 among “Students Most Engaged in Community Service.”
