Princeton Review’s 2015 Best Colleges Names Gordon College As One of The Nation’s Best

WENHAM, MA—Gordon College is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features Gordon College in the 2015 edition of its annual college guide, The Best 379 Colleges, released today. Only 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review’s flagship college guide.

It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories. Only four colleges that are members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) made the national best colleges list. “Gordon is one of America’s college jewels,” said Bill Robinson, interim president of the CCCU. “One of the most compelling ways it maintains its lofty standards of intellectual inquiry is by looking at disciplines through a theological lens that broadens, rather than narrows, the subjects of study. It is simply a first rate academic institution with a Christian perspective that enlightens both mind and spirit. Without question, Gordon deserves its standing in the Princeton Review.”

Rob Franek, Princeton Review senior vice president and publisher, is the author of The Best 379 Colleges. Franek, who toured Gordon’s campus this year and met with faculty, students and President D. Michael Lindsay, says, “Gordon College offers outstanding academics, which is the chief reason we selected it for the book. We base our choices primarily on data we obtain in our annual surveys of administrators at these schools and at hundreds of other colleges. We take into account input we get from Princeton Review’s education researchers, our 27-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, personal visits to schools, and the sizable amount of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools. We also work to maintain a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character.”

The Princeton Review guide does not rank insititutions academically from 1 to 379. Instead, The Best 379 Colleges guide serves as an in-depth resource to identify the schools that standout for their academic excellence and prestigious faculty teaching. Though Princeton Review does provide online recommendations by region (such as Northeast and  Midwest), only the country’s top 15 percent make the national ranking in the official annual guide. “We are deeply honored that Princeton Review chose to recognize Gordon College as a ‘2015 Best College’ after extensive review,” said Rob Van Cleef, Gordon‘s executive director of institutional research. “Gordon College faculty are passionate about mentoring students and being catalysts for their growth. We believe this makes a difference; it is wonderful to have others affirm that it does.”

School profiles in The Best 379 Colleges including ratings on a scale of 60 to 99 in eight categories.   The Princeton Review bases those ratings on institutional data collected during the 2013-14 academic year, and its student surveys. Rating categories include academics, admissions selectivity, financial aid, fire safety, and “Green”—a measure of a school’s commitment to the environment in its policies, practices and education programs.

In addition to the published guide, material from The Best 379 Colleges is available online at PrincetonReview.com. This is the first time Gordon College has been included in The Princeton Review’s The Best 379 Colleges.