Rice ranks No. 1 for best quality of life and No. 2 for happiest students in new Princeton Review college guide

Rankings based on surveys of students across nation

HOUSTON — (Aug. 6, 2013) — Rice University grades its students throughout the school year, and now the students have graded Rice via the Princeton Review’s annual survey.  Rice received a solid A in the form of top rankings for quality of life and happiest students.

For the past few years Rice has ranked first or second in these two categories, and that tradition continues in the Princeton Review’s “The Best 378 Colleges” published this week. Rice is No. 1 for best quality of life and No. 2 for happiest students — just the opposite of last year’s rankings. Rice has ranked No. 1 for best quality of life four times before and No. 1 for happiest students the past two years.

The Princeton Review surveyed 126,000 students at 378 top colleges about their schools’ academics and administration, life at their college, their fellow students and themselves. The guide lists the top 20 schools for 62 categories, and Rice appears on nine of the lists. In addition to being singled out for best quality of life and happiest students, Rice is No. 3 for best-run colleges, No. 5 for great financial aid, No. 6 for “their students love these colleges,” No. 10 for lots of race/class interaction and also for best health services, No. 12 for best athletic facilities and No. 17 for great town-gown relations.

“Our faculty and staff, as well as our generous alumni and other supporters, are dedicated to providing the best educational experience possible at Rice University, and it’s very rewarding to see their efforts acknowledged by the consistently high ratings that students give Rice in the annual Princeton Review survey,” said Rice President David Leebron. “The quality of our campus residential experience, the commitment of our faculty, staff and administration to the well-being and success of our students, the opportunities provided by Houston and the benefits our students derive from an extraordinarily diverse student body are all reflected in these student-driven rankings. We are very grateful for the appreciation and loyalty of our wonderful student body.”

Students quoted in the guide’s profile of Rice note the university’s stellar faculty, “a vibrant research program” and a “diverse selection of courses and departments.” “Academic advising is amazing,” they said, adding that professors are an important source of support and invite students to join them for coffee in the student center or visit them during office hours. Students also cited the “fantastic” weather, the opportunity to explore Houston and its restaurants and the research opportunities at a campus “next to the largest medical center in the world.” Others noted that students’ career goals and intellectual interests run the gamut. “Regardless of your interest and no matter how nerdy it might be now, you’ll definitely find someone else who shares your passion,” a student wrote.

For more information about the rankings, visit www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx.

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A video about the rankings is available for download at http://youtu.be/08qnnTeKZ-U.

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for “best value” among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance. To read “What they’re saying about Rice,” go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU. 

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