Named Top in the Princeton Review

Graceland Named to The Princeton Review list, “BEST IN THE MIDWEST” FEATURED ON ITS WEBSITE: “2012 BEST COLLEGES: REGION BY REGION”

The Princeton Review, an education services company widely known for its test prep programs and college and graduate school guides, has named Graceland University among 153 top institutions to its “Best in the Midwest” section of its website feature, “2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region.”

The 153 colleges chosen for its “Best in the Midwest” list are located in twelve states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. The Princeton Review also designated 220 colleges in the Northeast, 121 in the West, and 135 in the Southeast as best in their locales on the company’s “2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region” lists. Collectively, the 629 colleges named “regional best(s)” constitute about 25% of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.

These are Capstones to our students’ success.

Graceland scored well in academic rankings, and as offering a great quality of life for its students. Graceland also scored high in its fire safety rating and as a ‘Green’ school. Graceland President, Dr. John Sellars, called the 2012 Midwestern rankings “…another indication of the emphasis Graceland continues to place on academic excellence and quality of life. These are capstones to the success of our students.”

To access information about how Graceland stacked up against some of the best schools in the Midwest, follow this link: www.princetonreview.com/best-regional-colleges.aspx.

Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publisher, said, “We’re pleased to recommend these colleges to users of our site as the best schools to earn their undergrad degrees. We chose these as our ‘regional best’ colleges mainly for their excellent academic programs. From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite. We also take into account what students at the schools reported to us. Only schools that permit us to independently survey their students are eligible to be considered for our regional ‘best’ lists.”

Graceland students like where they’re at.

Graceland students polled by The Princeton Review responded most favorably about the positive sense of community, noting Graceland’s unique ‘House’ residential and social system. For this project, The Princeton Review asks students attending the schools 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 are quoted in the school profiles on The Princeton Review site. The profiles also have a “Survey Says” list that reveals topics about which students surveyed at the school were in highest agreement.

The schools in The Princeton Review’s “2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region” website section are also rated in six categories by The Princeton Review. The ratings, which appear on the school profiles, are scores on a scale of 60 to 99. The Princeton Review tallied these scores based on institutional data it obtained from the colleges in 2010-11 and/or student survey data. The rating score categories include: Academics, Admissions Selectivity, Financial Aid, Fire Safety, Quality of Life, and Green. Graceland fared well in all of these categories. The Princeton Review explains the criteria for each rating score on its site at www.princetonreview.com/college/college-ratings.aspx.

The Princeton Review does not rank the 629 colleges in its “2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region” list hierarchically or by region or in various categories. However, some schools in this list that also appear in The Princeton Review book, “The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition” may appear on some of the Princeton Review ranking lists of “top 20 colleges” in 62 categories that are unique to that book. They are based entirely on the Company’s surveys of students at the 376 schools in the book.