SUU Ranks Best in the West 10 Years Running

Published: August 10, 2015 | Author: Jessica Young | Read Time: 2 minutes

In its just released collegiate survey, “2016 Best Colleges: Region by Region,” The Princeton Review identified Southern Utah University at the top tier of colleges and universities across the nation that it “considers academically outstanding and well worth consideration in your college search” by region.

With this recognition, SUU has been cited as one of the West’s best schools on the “Best in the West” listing, a national and prestigious ranking that is becoming an annual tradition for the University, in fact for 10 years running.

According to Robert Franek, The Princeton Review senior vice president of publishing, making this directory is very prestigious.

He said, “Our 649 ‘regional best’ colleges are a select group, indeed.  They constitute only 25 percent of the nation's four-year colleges.  From hundreds of institutions, we considered, we selected these schools primarily for their excellent academics.  We also weighed what students attending the schools reported to us about their campus experiences at them on our student survey for this project.”

In fact, actual comments from the surveyed students pepper each Princeton Review college profile. Some student comments quoted in SUU’s profile spoke to the University’s academic environment that focuses on professors who “are more concerned about students and his or her potential than the subject and thus will do everything possible to ensure student success.”

According to The Princeton Review, colleges and universities are ultimately selected not by the size of its campus but for those universities that prove high academic excellence and offer outstanding undergraduate programs.

SUU’s Jared Tippets, vice president of student affairs, said of this recognition, “Over the past year, SUU has spent a significant amount of time and resources to improve our educational experience for our undergraduates.  We strive to create meaningful out-of-class learning experiences, provide world-class faculty to educate in the classroom, and surround our students with supportive academic advisors."

To accurately measure student opinion in its evaluations, The Princeton Review conducts an 80-questions survey, asking students to rate their personal experiences and quality of life earning their degree. Time and time again, T-Birds lauded University for its student involvement campus friendliness.

The 125 colleges that The Princeton Review chose for its "Best in the West" 2016 list are located in fifteen states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Princeton Review also designated 225 colleges in the Northeast, 159 in the Midwest, and 140 in the Southeast as best in their locales on the company’s "2016 Best Colleges: Region by Region" lists. 

Collectively, the 649 colleges named "regional best(s)" constitute about 25 percent of the nation's 2,968 four-year colleges.

---

Contact Information:

435-586-5400
Contact the Office of Marketing Communication