Contact:  Office of Media Relations, Michelle Fryling, Director

August 20, 2007


Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s record of accolades from the nation’s most prestigious guidebooks continues with the University’s inclusion in the “Princeton Review’s Best 366 Colleges,” 2007-2008 edition.

This is the seventh consecutive year that IUP has been selected for the Princeton Review’s “Best” guidebooks.
There are a total of 130 four-year accredited colleges and universities in Pennsylvania and 2,343 in the United States.

“The Princeton Review’s Best,” accepts no advertising dollars and uses independent surveys from current students, recent graduates and college officials to determine which colleges and universities merit inclusion. The book is a reflection of interviews with more than 100,000 college students from all over the country.

“To be selected for these guidebooks for seven consecutive years and to be in the company of institutions like Princeton, Yale and the University of Chicago, clearly demonstrates IUP’s status as an outstanding and nationally ranked university,” said IUP President Tony Atwater. “To see that IUP is consistently chosen by independent evaluators as one of the best universities in the nation offers validation of the university’s high academic quality and of the excellence of the IUP faculty,” he said.

In the category about IUP, an IUP student describes the university as a place that “academically challenging,” where students “get more for less.” Another student identified IUP has having “awesome professors who are concerned with their welfare and academic growth,’ and find their teachers “ridiculously easy to get into contact with—no need to make an appointment.”

Thanks to “strong educators” and “small class sizes,” students are “pushed to think critically,” and those who want even more of a challenge can take part in “excellent honors classes and programs,” students report to guidebook authors. Says one undergrad, “IUP students enjoy an equal say in the policies that form the foundation of their education through the Student Senate, and can always access (the administration) when in need.” Guidebook authors conclude that “overall, students feel that they get more for less at IUP: Anyone attending can achieve the same education as another student at an Ivy League school as long as they are truly interested in learning and willing to put forth the effort.”

Inclusion in the guidebook follows IUP’s inclusion in two other national publications, selected for excellence and value.

In June, “Consumer Digest Magazine” selected IUP as number four in the magazine’s rankings of the “Best Values in Public Colleges and Universities.” In February, IUP was ranked at 40 out of 100 colleges and universities selected for “Kiplinger’s Personal Finance” magazine’s “The Kiplinger 100,” a listing of schools that combine outstanding value with a first-class education.

IUP was included in the 2005 issue of “Entrepreneur Magazine” under a listing of the top 73 colleges and universities in the nation ranked for excellence in “entrepreneurship emphasis.” The Eberly College of Business and Information Technology won national prominence as part of the Princeton Review’s 2006 Edition of “The Best 237 Business Schools,” following its selection for the 2005 edition of the guidebook.
These recent accolades add to a decade of external recognitions: IUP has been included in “How to Get an Ivy League Education at a State School” by Martin Nemko; in “Money Magazine,” and the annual “100 Best Buys in Public Colleges and Universities” published by “Kiplinger’s Magazine” and in Kaplan Publishing’s “The Unofficial, UnBiased Insider's Guide to the 328 Most Interesting Colleges” in 2002 and 2003.

IUP also was selected by Forbes.com as one of the 25 “Most Wired” campuses in the nation in 2003. IUP’s Robert E. Cook Honors College was the subject of a chapter within Dr. Donald Asher’s “Cool Colleges for the Hyperintelligent,” published in 2001 and reprinted in 2007.
 

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