The Princeton Review has ranked Eastern Michigan University for the eighth consecutive year as one of the “Best in the Midwest.”
The rankings continued with U.S. News and World Report naming EMU one of the top regional Midwest universities. Here it ranked 81st out of all universities and colleges chosen in the Midwest and 27th among the public colleges selected in the region.
The point of these national rankings is to provide students with a clear view of which schools are worth considering and then help them see which one will fit them best.
152 Midwestern colleges located in 12 states were honored. Those states include: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The online feature titled “2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region” is helpful because it provides this year’s incoming students with an easy way to learn about some of the best higher learning offered at regionally known universities, which they might not have heard about otherwise.
The Princeton Review search picked a total of 623 of the best-known colleges in the Northeast, West, Southeast and Midwest regions, but the schools are not individually ranked.
The spectrum of colleges chosen by The Princeton Review included variety with some being public or private institutions, others specializing in science and technology or those standing out for history. Some colleges on the list are expensive, while others remained considerably more affordable.
The process of selection required the universities to meet two standards. The schools had to meet the academic expectations within their region and the Princeton Review had to have enough access to student surveys to provide them with a good representative profile for any given college.
The Review surveyed many students on topics like campus life, academics and campus opportunities.
“These rankings are helpful in painting a picture of the university’s landscapes of which areas the university is successful in meeting the needs of our students,” said Walter Kraft, EMU’s vice president of communications and public affairs.
For example, this year EMU is the only public university in Michigan to put a freeze on tuition, which earned it the title of being “a great value” on The Review’s site.
In contrast with the Princeton Review’s list, the U.S. News and World Report base the value of these institutions off of weighted categories such as retention excellence, graduation rates, student selectivity, alumni giving rate, undergraduate academic reputation and the strength of faculty.
“Having an external third party source verify the quality of an EMU education is important,” Kraft said. “We can say all we want about the work we do here and we can feel proud about our faculty and programs, but it’s important for potential students and their families to see that it’s not just us who feel this way about our institution, but others as well.”
