Good food and classmates with similar political beliefs are great, but it’s the classroom experience that we’re supposed to be going to college for. However, almost every college student will skip a class at some point, and unfortunately some skip regularly.
Sickness and emergencies are perfectly legitimate reasons for doing this, but more often than not, students skip class because they’re bored, there’s something else they’d rather do, or they simply don’t want to go. Reasons like this indicate they’re not having great classroom experiences.
To nail down the schools that offer the best classroom experiences, The Princeton Review compiles a list every year based on students’ answers to multiple survey questions – how they rate their professors, classrooms, and lab facilities; how much time their classes devote to discussion; and what percentage of their classes they attend.
Looking at this ranking over the past six years, 41 schools have made the list, and five have made it every year: Reed College, the University of Richmond, Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, the United States Military Academy, and Mount Holyoke College.
All five of these schools also boast a student-to-faculty ratio around 10:1 and an average classroom size of 20 or fewer students, which indicates that the more attention each student gets, the more likely he or she is to attend and enjoy classes – and maybe learn something.
Here are the schools with the “Best Classroom Experience”:
The ‘Best Classroom Experience’ Rankings From 2015 to 2010
2015 Rank & School | 2015 Rank | 2014 Rank | 2013 Rank | 2012 Rank | 2011 Rank | 2010 Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bard College (NY) | 1 | 4 | NR | 8 | NR | NR |
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering | 2 | 10 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 5 |
Reed College | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 |
Bennington College | 4 | 2 | 7 | NR | 14 | 17 |
Swarthmore College | 5 | 5 | 1 | 13 | NR | NR |
Whitman College | 6 | 7 | 5 | NR | 18 | 11 |
Thomas Aquinas College | 7 | 6 | 14 | NR | 20 | NR |
Grinnell College | 8 | 3 | 3 | 14 | NR | NR |
Wabash College | 9 | 12 | 12 | NR | NR | NR |
Mount Holyoke College | 10 | 13 | 15 | 7 | 1 | 6 |
Middlebury College | 11 | 14 | 13 | NR | 15 | 10 |
Sarah Lawrence College | 12 | 8 | 11 | NR | 16 | 13 |
Hamilton College | 13 | 17 | NR | 18 | 17 | 12 |
United States Military Academy | 14 | 11 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 8 |
Scripps College | 15 | NR | 18 | NR | NR | NR |
University of Richmond | 16 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 12 | 18 |
Claremont McKenna College | 17 | 18 | NR | NR | NR | NR |
University of Chicago | 18 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
Haverford College | 19 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
Kenyon College | 20 | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
St. Olaf College | NR | 15 | NR | NR | NR | NR |
St. John’s College (MD) | NR | 16 | 8 | 16 | 13 | NR |
St. John’s College (NM) | NR | 19 | NR | NR | NR | NR |
Wellesley College | NR | 20 | 6 | 11 | 6 | 3 |
Bard College at Simon’s Rock (MA) | NR | NR | 17 | NR | NR | NR |
Denison University | NR | NR | 19 | NR | NR | NR |
Carleton University | NR | NR | 20 | NR | NR | NR |
Stanford University | NR | NR | NR | 2 | 3 | 4 |
Princeton University | NR | NR | NR | 6 | 10 | 9 |
Williams College | NR | NR | NR | 9 | 7 | 7 |
Pomona College | NR | NR | NR | 10 | 9 | 1 |
Colby College | NR | NR | NR | 12 | NR | NR |
Colgate University | NR | NR | NR | 15 | 19 | 14 |
Chaplain College | NR | NR | NR | 17 | NR | NR |
Bates College | NR | NR | NR | 19 | NR | NR |
Sweet Briar College | NR | NR | NR | 20 | 8 | NR |
Wittenberg University | NR | NR | NR | NR | 11 | NR |
Marlboro College | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 15 |
Wesleyan College | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 16 |
Bowdoin College | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | 19 |
Emerson College | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR | NR |
Source: The Princeton Review
DON”T MISS: The Princeton Review: 2015 Rankings