Hobart and William Smith Colleges

29 July 2008 HWS Among The Best 368 Colleges

Hobart and William Smith Colleges are once again rated as one of the nations best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Reviews just-published 2009 edition of its annual book, The Best 368 Colleges (Random House/Princeton Review).

Only about 15 percent of Americas 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are in the book. The ranking cites the impressive caliber of the Colleges academic programs as well as the quality of HWS students, with 33 percent of the first-year class graduating in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

The book also cites the exemplary faculty, top notch career services office and overall student satisfaction as positive attributes.

Students come before all else, said an HWS student in the publication. I have had professors invite me to office hours, send me internship opportunities, discuss my career goals, and even invite me to their house for dinner; and that students are continuously immersed in campus life and happenings.

The Best 368 Colleges features two-page profiles of each of the schools as well as student survey-based ranking lists of top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories. The Princeton Review also posts the books ranking lists on its Web site www.princetonreview.com.

We choose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics. We evaluate them based on institutional data, feedback from students and our visits to schools over the years, says Robert Franek, Princeton Reviews vice president of publishing.

We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents, and work to have a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.

Hobart and William Smith Colleges are also listed in the Princeton Reviews 2007 Colleges with a Conscience: An Engaged Students Guide to College, which ranks HWS as one of best institutions for service learning and civic engagement.