Top Colleges Named in 50 Categories Based on 172,000 Students’ Candid Feedback About Their Schools and Their Experiences at Them

NEW YORK, Aug. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The Princeton Review^®—one of the nation’s leading education services companies—today reported its annual “Best Colleges” rankings.

The company’s 50 categories of Best Colleges for 2027 rankings are posted on PrincetonReview.com where they are searchable for free. They are also published in a 25-page chapter of The Best 392 Colleges: 2027 Edition (Penguin Random House, $26.99) which went on sale today.

The book is the 35th edition of the company’s flagship college guide which, when it debuted in 1992, presented the first entirely student-survey-based college rankings—and in multiple categories.

The Princeton Review ranking lists focus on subjects that college applicants and their parents might ask (or wish they could ask) current enrollees at a school.

The lists provide feedback about the schools’ academics, administrative services, financial aid, and campus amenities as well as insights into student body social life, political leanings, sports interests, race/class interaction, LGBTQ community acceptance, and more.

The 50 ranking lists reported today are entirely based on data from the company’s surveys of 172,000 students at the 392 schools in the book (about 439 students per school on average). The 98-question survey asked them to rate their colleges on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences at them. Each ranking list names the top 25 schools (of the 392 in the book) in a specific category using data from one or more student survey question. Information on the basis for each ranking list and the book’s student survey is posted on the Best Colleges for 2027 hub on PrincetonReview.com and published in the book.

Some of the 50 Best Colleges for 2027 ranking lists, and the #1 colleges on them are:

• Professors Get High Marks — Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering (MA)
• Best Classroom Experience — Reed College (OR)
• Best-Run Colleges — Claremont McKenna College (CA) 
• Great Financial Aid — Washington and Lee University (VA)
• Best Career Services — Bentley University (MA)
• Best Health Services —The University of Chicago (IL)
• Best Student Support and Counseling Services—Macalester College (MN)
• Best Campus Food — University of Massachusetts—Amherst
• Best College Dorms — Bowdoin College (ME)
• Most Beautiful Campus — University of San Diego (CA)
• College City Gets High Marks — Columbia University (NY)
• Most Politically Conservative Students —Texas Christian University
• Most Politically Liberal Students — Bennington College (VT)
• Most Politically Moderate Students — Manhattan University (NY)
• Most Religious Students — Brigham Young University (UT)
• LGBTQ-Friendly — University of Vermont
• Lots of Race/Class Interaction — Rice University (TX)
• Friendliest Students — William & Mary (VA) 
• Happiest Students —Vanderbilt University (TN)
• Great Outdoors: Students Get Outside (new ranking list in the book) —The University of the South (TN)

In The Best 392 Colleges, The Princeton Review also shines a light on colleges in the book with interesting distinctions based on the company’s survey of college administrators for the project. In a feature titled Statistical Stand-Out Schools for 2027, some of the distinctions and the colleges named as “stand-outs” for them are:

• Lowest Tuition & Fees (In-State) / Public College — University of Central Florida ($5,954)
• Highest Average Need-Based Scholarships — Princeton University (NJ) ($80,837)
• Lowest Student/Faculty Ratio — California Institute of Technology (3:1) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3:1)
• Lowest Average Undergraduate Debt — City University of New York: City College ($7,849)
• Most Applications / Public College — University of California—Los Angeles (145,086)
• Most Applications / Private College — New York University (114,125)

“The colleges we profile in The Best 392 Colleges vary by type, size, locale, and campus culture. In our opinion, each one offers an academically outstanding undergraduate education,” said Rob Franek, lead author of the book and Editor-in-Chief at The Princeton Review. “They are truly a select group: they comprise only about 14% of America’s nearly 2,800 four-year colleges.”

“The colleges that make our ranking lists in the book do so entirely as a result of their own students’ opinions of them,” Franek added. “We don’t rank the schools on a single hierarchical list, nor have we ever crowned one college ‘best’ overall. No school is best overall. For 35 years, our goal for this project has been to create multiple ranking lists and resources to help college applicants answer what is likely the toughest but also the most important question in their journey to college: ‘Which college is best for me?'” 

Franek shares fascinating facts about the #1 colleges on 10 of the book’s most searched ranking lists in a video about The Best 392 Colleges that is posted on company’s YouTube channel.

About The Princeton Review’s Best Colleges Book
Annually published since 1992, The Princeton Review’s Best Colleges guide profiles schools the company’s editors deem the nation’s best based on the opinions of the company’s college experts and data from its surveys of college administrators and students attending the schools. The profiles present information on admission and aid requirements, acceptance rates, enrollment, accepted students’ test scores, and student body demographics. They also report The Princeton Review’s “Inside Word” about the schools and the company’s ratings (scores from 60 to 99) of them in eight categories including Admissions Selectivity and Financial Aid. The book’s 50 ranking lists each name the top 25 colleges in a specific category. They are entirely based on data from the company’s 98-question survey of students attending the schools in the book. The ranking lists in the book’s 2027 edition, The Best 392 Colleges, were tallied based on data from the company’s surveys of students in 2025-2026 (and/or the previous two academic years). 

The book also includes other resources to help applicants find their “best fit” school. A section titled “Great Schools for 22 of the Most Popular Undergraduate Majors” lists colleges that excel in academic programs from Artificial Intelligence (the newest major in this section) to Business/Finance to Psychology. Five Honor Rolls name colleges with institutional distinctions. They include those that are Tuition-Free, those that received the company’s highest rating score (99) for Financial Aid, Fire Safety, and Green, and a Mental Health Services Honor Roll that names colleges with exceptional commitments to mental health and well-being services for their students. The rankings chapter in the book also includes some of the company’s annual ranking lists that are reported online in the months prior to the book’s August publication. They include the Best Value Colleges, Top Undergraduate Colleges for Game Design, and Top Undergraduate Colleges for Entrepreneurship.

The Best 392 Colleges is one of more than 150 books developed by The Princeton Review and published by Penguin Random House. Other books in the line include Paying for College (2027 edition forthcoming September 22, 2026), College Admission 101, and annually-updated guides to the SAT^®, ACT^®, and AP^® exams.

About The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admissions services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school–bound students as well as working professionals achieve their education and career goals through its many education services and products. These include online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors; online resources; a line of more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. Founded in 1981, the company is now in its 45th year. The company’s Tutor.com brand, now in its 25th year, is one of the largest online tutoring services in the U.S. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 29 million tutoring sessions. The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York, NY, is not affiliated with Princeton University. For more information, visit PrincetonReview.com. Follow the company on Facebook (@ThePrincetonReviewSAT), Instagram (@theprincetonreview), LinkedIn (the-princeton-review), YouTube (@ThePrincetonReview), and TikTok (@princeton.review). Subscribe to The Princeton Review Substack, Brick & Mortarboard, here.

THE BEST 392 COLLEGES: 2027 Edition
by Robert Franek with David Soto, Stephen Koch, Aaron Riccio, and Laura Rose.
Penguin Random House • $26.99 ($36.99 CAN)
August 18, 2026 • 896 pages • ISBN 979-8-217-12523-4
www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/best-colleges 

ACT^® is a registered trademark of ACT, Inc.
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WEBSITE: www.princetonreview.com

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SOURCE The Princeton Review