Exclusive college guide to include Champlain College in 2012 edition

Champlain College is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review, the widely-known education services company. The Princeton Review has chosen the college for inclusion in the forthcoming edition of its popular annual ‘best colleges’ guidebook, "The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition" (Random House / Princeton Review Books) which will be available in bookstores in early August.
Also, the New York Times in a BLOG is reporting that the Princeton Review and GamePro Media, the publisher of GamePro magazine, which it called a video-gamers’ bible, "have joined forces to handicap what they consider the ‘Top 10’ undergraduate and graduate programs in video game design."
‘We chose Champlain College as one of our "best" undergraduate colleges based on several criteria we consider when reviewing schools for this book,’ said Robert Franek, senior vice president of publishing for The Princeton Review. ‘First, we must have a high regard for their academic programs and other offerings. Second, our selections take into account institutional data we collect from the schools and the opinions of their students attending them whom we survey. We also greatly value the feedback we get about schools from our college-savvy staff across the country as well as from students, educators and parents who use our services and books."
Champlain College President David F. Finney, on hearing the news, said, ‘This recognition is a reflection of everyone at Champlain College for a continued commitment to providing the most student-centric, professionally-focused, education in the country.’
Says Franek, "Only about 15% of the colleges in the nation are in this book, and they vary considerably by region, size, selectivity and character. It includes public and private schools, traditional and non-traditional colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and science and technology-focused institutions. However, each one is an outstanding institution we highly recommend to college applicants and their parents. In our opinion, these are ‘the crème of the crop’ institutions for undergraduates in America.’
In Franek’s letter to Champlain announcing the decision, he wrote,
‘It was a great pleasure reviewing your school’s impressive credentials. You have much to brag about!’
He noted Champlain is one of only six institutions that will be added to the 2012 edition.
Ian Mortimer, Vice President of Enrollment Management at Champlain, says in his experience, ‘It is rare that an institution gets selected for this listing during its first application and lobbying effort; it usually takes a few tries. However, our story and data were very compelling.’
Champlain College joins University of Vermont, Saint Michael’s College, Middlebury College, Green Mountain College and Bennington College on the list of Vermont higher education institutions included in the national guide to top colleges.
‘The last step of The Princeton Review’s process is capturing the real student experience and evaluating it against other institutions in the top 15 percent,’ Mortimer added. ‘More than 200 Champlain students provided information on our college to the Review, and their stories and critical feedback are what sealed the deal; they told their story and the Review was impressed.’
The Princeton Review's annual "Best Colleges" guide is the only college guidebook that has both two-page profiles on the schools and college ranking lists of "top 20 schools" in 62 categories. The ranking lists are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of more than 122,000 students at the 376 schools in the book who rate their own schools and report on their experiences at them. Among the ranking categories are lists of colleges in the book at which students most highly (or least highly) rated their administrators, their career centers and their athletic facilities. Other categories reflect campus and study body political leanings, race/class relations, LGBT acceptance, participation in sports, and religion. The Princeton Review as a company does not rank the colleges in the book hierarchically, 1 to 376, either for academics - the company believes all 376 schools are first-rate, academically - or by any other category.
The book also has unique ratings ‘ scores from 60 to 99 ‘ on each college's profile in eight categories including Financial Aid, Fire Safety, and Green: a rating based on the college's environmental commitments. The rating scores are based on institutional data collected from the schools.
‘The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition’ will be available online and in bookstores in early August.