Saint Mary’s receives ‘Best in Midwest’ honors from Princeton Review

Saint Mary’s is one of 152 schools receiving the “Best in the Midwest” designation for 2011 from the Princeton Review, a national college guide and ranking program. Results were announced this week.

Each year, the Princeton Review profiles colleges and universities that “stand out as academically excellent institutions of higher learning.” The Princeton Review survey asks students to rate their own schools on a variety of issues — from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food — and to answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life. The Princeton Review is a New York City-based company known for test-preparation courses, education services and books; it is not affiliated with Princeton University.

Other Minnesota schools included on Princeton Review’s 2011 “Best in the Midwest” list are: Augsburg, Carleton, Gustavus Adolphus, Hamline, Macalester, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, St. Catherine, St. Olaf, St. Scholastica, St. Thomas, University of Minnesota (Twin Cities and Crookston campuses) and Winona State University.

The 623 colleges named regional bests (218 in the Northeast, 133 in the Southeast, 152 in the Midwest, and 120 in the West) represent only about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.

For more information, go to www.princetonreview.com/best-regional-colleges.aspx.

The website gives a profile of Saint Mary’s, along with useful college selection features.