Rice has 5 top-10 rankings in new Princeton Review college guide

No 2. for best quality of life

Rice University is rated among the country’s top 10 in five categories in the 2015 edition of the Princeton Review’s “The Best 379 Colleges” – including No. 2 for best quality of life.

The rankings are based on a survey of 130,000 students at 379 top colleges. Students were asked 80 questions about their school’s academics, administration, student body and themselves, and the Princeton Review’s college guide listed the top 20 schools in 62 categories.

In addition to No. 2 for best quality of life, Rice is ranked No. 6 for happiest students, No. 7 for great financial aid and No. 9 for both lots of race/class interaction and “their students love these colleges.” Rice is also No. 13 for best health services, No. 15 for best-run colleges and No. 20 for LGBT-friendly.

For eight of the past nine years, Rice has ranked No. 1 or 2 for best quality of life. It has also ranked No. 1 or 2 for happiest students three times. In the new edition of the Princeton Review’s annual college guide published this week, Bowdoin College has the No. 1 spot for best quality of life, and Vanderbilt is No. 1 for happiest students.

In the guide’s profile of Rice, a student is quoted as saying, “Students at Rice work hard and accomplish great things in academics and extracurriculars. But this is complemented and supported by a thriving social life.” The guide notes that students report a wide range of activities and interests. “What they all have in common is their satisfaction with life at Rice,” the guide notes. It also states that Rice students are “generous with their praise for professors” and that Rice’s 11 residential colleges create “smaller, close-knit communities.” One student said, “The student body is extremely collaborative, friendly, accepting and social – it’s not cliquey.” Another pointed out that “Rice’s alcohol policy fosters a culture of care in which students … help each other stay safe and make good decisions.” And another commented, “There is no racial majority here on campus, and I’ve met students of varied political affiliations, religions, socio-economic status and sexual orientations.”

“Although the rankings fluctuate from year to year, we are pleased that our students consistently evaluate their Rice experience as among the very best in the country,” Rice President David Leebron said. “These rankings reflect broadly on our student-centered approach and affirm our commitment to the quality of each student’s experience, to providing extraordinary educational opportunity regardless of a student’s financial background and to creating a diverse student body in which students learn from each other.”

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