Princeton Review Guide Recognizes JMU as One of "Best 373 Colleges"

James Madison University's commitment to a complete educational experience of outstanding academics in the classroom and quality life and learning outside the classroom has earned the school a place in the 2011 edition of the Princeton Review's annual best colleges guidebook. 

"The Best 373 Colleges: 2011 Edition" profiles about 15 percent of America's 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges in detailed descriptions with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, including academics, admissions selectivity, financial aid, fire safety and green, a measure of the schools' commitment to environmentally related policies, practices and education. 

In addition, the guidebook includes ranking lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review's surveys of students attending the colleges. JMU ranked No. 3 in the Best Campus Food category - up one spot from the 2010 edition - and No. 18 in the School Runs Like Butter category, a measurement of how smoothly a school operates. 

"We commend James Madison University for its outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our selection of schools for the book," said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's senior vice president for publishing and author of "The Best 373 Colleges." "Our choices are based on institutional data we collect about schools, our visits to schools over the years, feedback we gather from students attending the schools and the opinions of our staff and our 28-member National College Counselor Advisory Board. We also work to keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character."

JMU is also one of 133 colleges on the Princeton Review's "Best in the Southeast" section of its website, "2011 Best Colleges: Region by Region." The site has profiles of 623 schools that the review recommends as "regional bests" in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and West. 

The annual guide went on sale Aug. 3. 

JMU is also included in the recently released 2011 edition of "The Fiske Guide to Colleges," which features over 300 of the country's best and most interesting colleges and universities.