9 NJ Colleges On Princeton Review’s ‘Best 385’ List

NEW JERSEY – The Princeton Review has released its annual list of the 385 best colleges, which includes nine schools in New Jersey. Along with the list of the best 385 colleges, the Princeton Review ranks colleges in categories like academics and administration, politics, quality of life and more.

“We chose the 385 colleges for this edition as our ‘best’ overall, academically, based on data we gathered in 2018–19 from more than a thousand school administrators about their schools’ academic programs and offerings,” Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief and the lead author of the book, said in a press release.

“We are well aware, however, that applicants need more than an academic assessment to choose the colleges best for them,” Franek said. “We created our dozens of ranking lists specifically to facilitate that search. We tally our lists using data we gather directly from our surveys of students attending these colleges. Our survey asks the students about their professors, administrators, school services, campus culture, and other facets of life at their schools.”

On the overall list of the best 385 colleges, the Princeton Review says the colleges aren’t ranked in order from No.1 to No.385. Colleges are ranked on the more specific lists like “best campus food,” “best college newspaper” and “party schools.”

In all, there are 62 of these lists and each list includes a ranking of the top 20 colleges in that category.

The New Jersey colleges on the overall best 385 schools list are:

• The College of New Jersey, Ewing Township (also ranked in these categories: “Financial Aid Not So Great” and “Lots of Greek Life”
• Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken (also ranked in these categories: “Professors Get Low Marks” and “College City Gets High Marks”)
• Rider University, Lawrenceville (also ranked in these categories: “Is That a Dorm?,” “Administrators Get Low Marks,” “Students Study the Least” and “This is a Library?”)
• Drew University, Madison (also ranked in these categories: “Best College Theater” and “Lots of Race/Class Interaction”)
• New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark (also ranked in these categories: “College City Gets Low Marks,” “Professors Get Low Marks,” “Least Happy Students” and “Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch”)
• Rutgers University-New Brunswick
• Princeton University (also ranked in this category: “Great Financial Aid”)
• Seton Hall University, South Orange (also ranked in these categories: “Least Happy Students,” “Administrators Get Low Marks” and “Best College Radio Station”)
• Monmouth University, West Long Branch (also ranked in this category: “Students Study the Least”)

Princeton Review says the colleges on the best 385 list are selected primarily based on the organization’s “high opinion of their academics.” Princeton Review closely analyzes more than 2,000 schools and collects feedback from students, educators, parents and advisors. The 62 specific lists that rank the top 20 schools in each category are compiled using a student survey.

Read the full Princeton Review methodology and see the schools ranked in each of the 62 lists.