UM ranked among 361 best colleges

“You can enjoy both ‘the outdoors and a great education’ at UM, a school that ‘is whatever you want it to be,’” begins the two-page profile of UM in The Princeton Review’s current edition of “The Best 361 Colleges.”

Only about 15 percent of the four-year colleges in the nation and two Canadian colleges are included in the 2007 edition of the book, published this month. Two Montana schools made the list, UM and Montana Tech of UM.

“We chose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics,” said Robert Franek, publisher and editorial director at The Princeton Review and author of the book. “We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them and our visits to schools over the years.”

In addition to outstanding academics, important criteria considered for inclusion in “The Best 361 Colleges” are location, cost, size and campus culture. The book, first published in 1992, provides quality of life, fire safety and academic ratings for each school and student survey-based lists ranking the top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories.

UM also is included in The Princeton Review’s lists of “Best Western Colleges,” which covers a 15-state region, and “America’s Best Value Colleges.”

For its record of having excellent service-learning programs and blending academics with community work, the University also is listed in The Princeton Review’s “Colleges with a Conscience: 81 Great Schools with Outstanding Community Involvement.”

The New York City-based Princeton Review monitors colleges continuously and annually collects data to help students choose the best schools for them. Complete listings are online at http://www.princetonreview.com.