The Princeton Review and US News & World Report agree: Sacred Heart University is one of the country’s best institutions for undergraduate education.

The Princeton Review education services company features SHU in the new edition of its popular guidebook, The Best 371 Colleges (Random House/Princeton Review, July 28, 2009, $22.99).

And in its 2010 edition of America’s Best Colleges, U.S. News & World Report now recognizes Sacred Heart University among the top 30 master’s level colleges and universities in the North.  Since being recognized as a Tier I institution in the 2005 publication, the University has climbed an impressive 26 spots in the U.S. News rankings. The exclusive rankings, which include more than 1,400 schools nationwide, are available online at www.usnews.com/colleges and in the September issue of the U.S. News & World Report magazine.

James Barquinero, the University’s vice president for Enrollment Planning and Student Affairs, placed the endorsements in the context of other national recognition. “Once again, Sacred Heart University has been recognized among the nation’s finest schools by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review, which has also cited our John F. Welch College of Business as one of the premier business schools in America. Along with recent recognition for excellence related to our mission such as the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, College Bound Coalition for traditionally underserved students, and Excellence in Service Learning, these endorsements are a tribute to our outstanding student body and the commitment of our faculty and administration to provide an education that emphasizes the development of the whole person – mind, body, and spirit.” 

Over the past 26 years, the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, which groups schools based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, has grown to be the most comprehensive research tool for students and parents considering higher education opportunities. The America’s Best Colleges ranking package, which includes extensive editorial content and multimedia resources, has helped families navigate the difficult decisions involved throughout the college process, from college admission and selection to financing options.

Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are profiled in The Princeton Review’s The Best 371 Colleges, which is the organization’s flagship annual college guide. Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s vice president for publishing and author of the guide, applauded SHU. “We commend Sacred Heart for its outstanding academics, which is the primary criterion for our choice of schools for the book,” he says. “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 of Sacred Heart, The Review praises the school for its “student-friendly” atmosphere while offering an “excellent education with a Catholic influence.” Students cite the high quality of the professors (“some of the most brilliant available in the academic world,” said one) as well as the personal attention faculty routinely pay to students. One freshman summed up her fellow Pioneers this way: “approachable, kind, courteous, respectful and outgoing.” Responses to the student survey gave especially high marks to the school’s athletic facilities, career services and dormitories.

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