The University of Charleston is one of only six schools nationwide added to the 2010 edition of the Princeton Review’s “The Best 371 Colleges.”  UC has been named one of the country's best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review.  
Only about 15% of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are profiled in the book, which is a well-known annual college guide.   It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with school rating scores in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review's surveys of students attending the colleges.

"We commend the University of Charleston for its outstanding academics, which is the primary criterion for our choice of schools for the book,” said Robert Franek of The Princeton Review.. “We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.  We make our choices based on institutional data we gather about schools, feedback from students attending them, and input from our staff who visit hundreds of colleges a year. We also value the opinions and suggestions of our 23-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, and independent college counselors we hear from yearlong."  

In its profile on the University of Charleston, The Princeton Review praises the school for its campus life and quotes extensively from UC students surveyed for the book.  Among their comments about their campus experiences: "The typical UC student is “smart, social, and friendly”; “invested in the campus community”; and “truly cares about their academic success.” Sports are a big part of campus life, and most students are “very involved throughout the university through various clubs, activities, or athletics." Students also said that UC “is a perfect place to prepare for life in the real world while benefiting from the friendliness and comfort of a small college environment,” and noted the plentiful internships and job placement near 100 percent every year.

The Princeton Review's 62 ranking lists in "The Best 371 Colleges" are entirely based on its survey of 122,000 students (about 325 per campus on average) attending the colleges in the book. The 80-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them.  Topics range from student assessments of their professors, administrators, financial aid, and campus food.  Other ranking lists are based on student reports about their student body's political leanings, race/class relations, gay community acceptance, and other aspects of campus life.  

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book academically, or from 1 to 371 in any category, nor do the rankings reflect The Princeton Review's opinion of the schools. A college's appearance on a ranking list is entirely the result of a high consensus among its surveyed students about a topic compared with that of students at other schools answering the same survey question(s) on the ranking list topic.

In a "Survey Says…." sidebar in the book's profile on the University of Charleston, The Princeton Review lists topics that UC students surveyed for the book were in most agreement about in their answers to survey questions.   The list includes: Diverse student types on campus; Students get along with local community; Low cost of living; (Almost) no one smokes; Very little drug use.” The University of Charleston also rated 75 on a scale of 90 for Quality of Life .

"The Best 371 Colleges" is the 18th edition of The Princeton Review's annual "best colleges" book.  Over the years, the book and its ranking lists have been favorably cited by former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings (among others).  Additional information about the rankings is available at www.PrincetonReview.com.