Seventh Straight Year for Angelo State University in Princeton Review

For the seventh consecutive year, Angelo State University has been listed by The Princeton Review as one of the country’s best institutions for undergraduate education, an honor that goes to only about 15 percent of the nation’s more than 2,500 four-year colleges.

The education services company features Angelo State in the 2016 edition of its annual college guide, “The Best 380 Colleges,” published Tuesday, Aug. 4, by Random House. The guide is The Princeton Review’s (TPR) flagship publication and includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight areas, based on surveys of 136,000 students nationally.

“Making The Princeton Review’s ‘Best Colleges’ list the first time was quite an accomplishment for Angelo State,” said ASU President Brian J. May. “The fact that we have now made the list for seven straight years shows that we are continuing in the tradition of offering an outstanding education to our students. It is also an ongoing testament to the hard work and dedication of our faculty, staff and students who have built ASU’s academic reputation.”

Robert Duncan, chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, said, “Congratulations to Dr. May and the entire team at Angelo State University on achieving this distinction for the seventh consecutive year. The recognition reflects Angelo State’s efforts to ensure excellence across all corners of the campus. This is just another reason Angelo State is such an asset to the Texas Tech University System.”

TPR also listed Angelo State among “great schools” for two of the top 20 most popular undergraduate majors, agriculture and nursing.

The 80-question TPR survey asks students to rate their own schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences. Topics range from assessments of their professors to campus activities. Based on those questions, ASU students showed up on the guide’s list of most religious students at No. 18 nationally.     

“Outstanding academics” are the chief reason a university is included in the annual college guide, according to Robert Franek, author of “The Best 380 Colleges” and TPR’s senior vice president and publisher.

“We make our selections primarily on data we obtain through our annual surveys of administrators at several hundred four-year colleges,” Franek said. “Additionally, we give considerable weight to observations from our school visits, opinions of our staff and our 23-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, and an unparalleled amount of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools.”

ASU was one of 13 Texas universities to make the 2016 list. The other institutions were Austin College, Baylor University, Rice, SMU, Southwestern University, TCU, Texas A&M University, Trinity University, University of Dallas, University of Houston, University of Texas and University of Texas at Dallas. The list includes five public and eight private institutions.

The latest guide states that “Angelo State offers students a ‘very affordable’ education coupled with a ‘wide range of degree programs.’ Importantly, a ‘small-town feel’ permeates the campus, and students are quick to assert that ‘you’re not just a number at Angelo State.’”

In addition to making The Princeton Review’s list of “The Best 380 Colleges,” ASU was among the institutions in 15 western states listed in TPR’s “Best in the West” website feature at www.princetonreview.com/best-regional-colleges.aspx.