Looking for the best college? New rankings reveal happiest students, best dorms and more

NEW YORK - The Princeton Review released its annual Best Colleges rankings for 2027, featuring 50 categories based entirely on student survey responses.

Dig deeper:

The rankings are based on surveys from about 172,000 students at the 392 colleges featured in the book, or about 439 students per school. Students completed a 98-question survey about academics, financial aid, campus services, student life, politics, housing, food and other aspects of their college experiences.

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Each list identifies the top 25 schools in a particular category. The Princeton Review said its rankings are intended to address questions students and parents may have about campus life.

Some of the 2027 rankings and the colleges that took the top spot include:

• Professors Get High Marks: Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts.
• Best Classroom Experience: Reed College in Oregon.
• Best-Run Colleges: Claremont McKenna College in California.
• Great Financial Aid: Washington and Lee University in Virginia.
• Best Career Services: Bentley University in Massachusetts.
• Best Health Services: University of Chicago in Illinois.
• Best Student Support and Counseling Services: Macalester College in Minnesota.
• Best Campus Food: University of Massachusetts Amherst.
• Best College Dorms: Bowdoin College in Maine.
• Most Beautiful Campus: University of San Diego in California.
• College City Gets High Marks: Columbia University in New York.
• Most Politically Conservative Students: Texas Christian University.
• Most Politically Liberal Students: Bennington College in Vermont.
• Most Politically Moderate Students: Manhattan University in New York.
• Most Religious Students: Brigham Young University in Utah.
• LGBTQ-Friendly: University of Vermont.
• Lots of Race/Class Interaction: Rice University in Texas.
• Friendliest Students: William & Mary in Virginia.
• Happiest Students: Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
• Great Outdoors: Students Get Outside: University of the South in Tennessee.

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The guide also highlights schools with notable statistics drawn from surveys of college administrators. Among those distinctions were:

• Lowest in-state tuition and fees at a public college: University of Central Florida, at $5,954.
• Highest average need-based scholarships: Princeton University, at $80,837.
• Lowest student-faculty ratio: California Institute of Technology and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both at 3-to-1.
• Lowest average undergraduate debt: City University of New York’s City College, at $7,849.
• Most applications among public colleges: University of California, Los Angeles, with 145,086 applications.
• Most applications among private colleges: New York University, with 114,125 applications.

What they're saying:

"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, the book’s lead author and editor-in-chief of 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?'"

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