Hollins University is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduates according to The Princeton Review. The education services company profiles and recommends Hollins in the new edition of its annual college guide, The Best 389 Colleges: 2024 Edition, published by Penguin Random House.
The guide and its rankings have been featured on NBC’s Today more than two dozen times and referenced by many other media ranging from NPR and The Wall Street Journal to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The Princeton Review chooses the colleges for the book based on data it annually collects from surveys of 2,000 college administrators about their institutions’ academic offerings. It also reviews data from its surveys of college students attending the schools who report on their experiences at their institutions.
The company noted that only about 15% of the nation’s 2,600 four-year colleges are profiled in this year’s guide.
“We salute Hollins for its outstanding academics, and its many other impressive offerings,” said Princeton Review Editor-in-Chief Rob Franek, who is the lead author of The Best 389 Colleges. “We’re delighted to recommend it as an ideal choice for students searching for their ‘best-fit’ college.”
In its profile of Hollins, The Princeton Review editors state that Hollins “heralds the unique benefits that come with being an all-women’s college, which includes a student-to-faculty ratio of 8:1, a relatively low class size, and a global network of alums that connects students to mentors, jobs, and internships.” Students surveyed for the 2024 edition cited the university as “academic and forward-thinking” while fostering “a positive intellectual standard that makes me and my peers want to really grow and push our education further.” They praised the faculty as “absolutely the backbone of this school. [They] have such a passion to support their students in any way they can, academically, emotionally, and just in life…[they are] more than willing to work with you when life throws you curve balls [and they are] very good about answering questions and making themselves available outside of class.”
Students highlighted the “Culture of Care implemented on campus, which makes respect and empathy for one another a conscious mindset throughout all of campus…[F]inding friends and familiar faces [is] easy. I never see a face I’ve never seen before…I find it comforting.” Others described Hollins as “a safe place to express oneself” and added that “everyone is so open and accepting and the clubs, societies, and traditions give everyone a unique place in the school.” They praised their fellow students as “kind, smart, funny, talented” people who create “a warm and friendly environment where everyone feels like they belong.”
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book hierarchically, from one to 389. However, the book has 50 categories of ranking lists. Each list names the top 25 schools (of those in the book) in its category. The ranking lists are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of 165,000 students at the 389 schools in the book. The company’s 85-question student survey asked students to rate their colleges on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences.
Hollins appears on the following ranking lists in The Best 389 Colleges:
Most Active Student Government (#8)
Most Liberal Students (#15)
Best College Library (#23)
Most Politically Active Students (#25)
