The Princeton Review Releases 2nd Edition of “Colleges That Create Futures” Recognizing 50 Colleges That Put the “Hire” in Higher Education

NEW YORK, May 2, 2017 / --The Princeton Review® (www.princetonreview.com) today released its second edition of Colleges That Create Futures: 50 Schools That Launch Careers By Going Beyond the Classroom, offering students and their families valuable information about great schools that offer distinctive research, internship and hands-on learning programs that will empower students to parlay their passions into successful post-college careers.  

"Colleges That Create Futures: 50 Schools That Launch Careers By Going Beyond the Classroom" (Penguin Random House / Princeton Review Books, May 2, $14.99) is authored by Robert Franek, the company’s Editor-in- Chief and chief expert on colleges, with the Staff of The Princeton Review.

Our annual College Hopes & Worries Survey has shown that while students and their parents value a solid college education, they are increasingly focused on the ROI of that education,  stated Robert Franek. This is why we want to highlight schools that offer stellar programs that will help students find great jobs or get into great post-graduate programs that will help them succeed when they graduate.

All 50 of the colleges showcased in this book offer superb academics, explained Mr. Franek, but what makes them stand out are the programs and services they offer outside the classroom which offer their students real-world experience, collaborative opportunities with faculty and networking opportunities with alumni, allowing them to graduate with outstanding job opportunities or acceptance to post-graduate studies at first-rate institutions.

The Princeton Review, known for its many college rankings, admission services, and books that help students choose and get into their dream colleges, is pleased to offer a resource like Colleges That Create Futures which helps student move to the next level— from their dream colleges into their dream careers.

Colleges That Create Futures was first published in 2015, partly in recognition of the rising concern shown by college applicants and their parents about career prospects after college in their responses to The Princeton Review’s annual College Hopes & Worries Survey. To the question “What will be the biggest benefit of your (your child) attending college and earning a college diploma?,” the plurality that year and since then view the main benefit of a college degree as “a potentially better job and higher income.” Similarly career-focused, responses to the question “When it comes to choosing which college you (or your child) will attend, which of the following do you think it is most likely to be?” 41% reported the College with best program for my (my child's) career interests—up from just 24% in 2005.

The Princeton Review chose the 50 schools based on data from the company's surveys of administrators and students at hundreds of universities between 2015 and 2017. The school selections and narrative profiles drew on feedback from more than 14,000 current students and 232 interviews with current faculty, administrators, and alumni. Each profile includes core information about the college, followed by sections describing its distinctive offerings (i.e. academic programs, career services, campus centers, research institutes, etc.), faculty, and alumni.

A complete list of the 50 colleges is below. Some of the schools and examples of their programs are:

  • Babson College loans teams of first-year students $3,000 to launch their own startups through its yearlong immersion course, Foundations of Management and Entrepreneurship (FME). Students learn the ins and outs of business management and donate all profits from their ventures to a local nonprofit. Since 1999, FME student businesses have donated more then $470,000 to the community.    

  • State University of New York at Binghamton: The Summer Scholars and Artists fellowship program gives students the freedom and funding to conduct eight weeks of full-time research, scholarship, or creative activity over the summer. As Janice McDonald, Director of the Undergraduate Research Center, explains: Many of our students need to work; they simply can’t take the summer off to do research. The Summer Scholars and Artists Program gives them time to pursue a topic they have proposed. Throughout the process, students work closely with a faculty mentor and present their results at a poster session during Binghamton’s annual Research Days.

  • Trinity University: For over seventeen years, undergraduates in Trinity’s Student Managed Fund (SMF) have been managing more than $5 million of the University endowment. It should be noted that this completely student-run fund often outperforms the S&P 500 index. In SMF your decisions have a real impact on the portfolio, you’re forced to think critically, your presentation skills are dramatically improved, and it shows a personal maturity level that is attractive to employers, says an alumnus.

  • University of California, San Diego: Through its Teaching + Learning Commons, UC San Diego joins a small but growing number of institutions that are building a better transcript. UC San Diego offers students several ways to augment the traditional educational narrative of grades and courses with a robust history of their experiences and skills. For instance, the Co-Curricular Record gives students an opportunity to capture experiential learning experiences like research and leadership positions on an official, printable record for employers and graduate schools.

  • Vassar College: Each year, about 500 students in Vassar’s Field Work program engage in internships for academic credit, lending their talents to nonprofits, government agencies, and businesses. A sponsoring professor consults with each student to guarantee the educational merit of the internship and provide it with structure, such as writing a final paper or keeping a journal throughout.    

In tandem with the book’s publication, The Princeton Review today launched a “Colleges That Create Futures” resource area at www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/colleges-that-create-futures. It has articles with advice for students interested in the college-career connection. Among them is an inspiring report, “Unbelievable Hands-On Learning Success Stories” and “10 Ways To Build Job Skills While You’re In College.” The area also has a quiz students can take for fun. It generates a short list of colleges in the book that might be ideal for various personality types – from “research mavens" and “innovators" to “free spirits” and “change-makers" – based on answers to questions about one's interests and talents. 

"Colleges That Create Futures" is one of 150 Princeton Review books published by Penguin Random House (www.princetonreview.com/bookstore). Others include "The Best 381 Colleges," known for its 62 categories of ranking lists, "Colleges That Pay You Back," which profiles 200 "best value" schools, and "Paying For College Without Going Broke."

About The Princeton Review

 The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep and college admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school-bound students achieve their education and career goals through online and in person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources, and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House. The Princeton Review is headquartered in New York, NY and is an operating business of ST Unitas. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University. For more information, visit www.princetonreview.com. Follow the company on Twitter @theprincetonrev.

About Penguin Random House / Princeton Review Books
Penguin Random House LLC (www.penguinrandomhouse.com) is the world's largest English-language general trade book publisher. Its 250 imprints publish more than 70,000 digital and 15,000 print books annually, with more than 100,000 eBooks available worldwide. Among them are best-selling and award-winning fiction, non-fiction and children's books. Random House has been the exclusive trade book publisher of Princeton Review Books since 1986 when the line debuted with "Cracking the System: The SAT" — the only test-prep guide ever to become a New York Times best seller. The Princeton Review Books line (www.randomhouse.com/princetonreview) is now part of the company's Random House Children's Books division and numbers more than 150 titles. It includes guides to dozens of major standardized tests, colleges and graduate schools, and study aid books for learners from pre-teens to post-grads. Follow Penguin Random House on Facebook at PenguinRandomHouse and Twitter @penguinrandom.

COLLEGES THAT CREATE FUTURES
50 Schools That Launch Careers by Going Beyond The Classroom 
By Robert Franek and the Staff of The Princeton Review. 
Penguin Random House / Princeton Review Books 
$14.99  (Canada $19.99) • 352 pages • On Sale Date: May 2, 2017 
ISBN 978-0-451-48783-4 
Available in bookstores, via online booksellers and www.princetonreview.com/bookstore. 

WEBSITE: www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/colleges-that-create-futures 

CONTACT: Amy Briskin, The Princeton Review, amy.briskin@review.com, 212-794-6644 or Pia Aliperti, The Princeton Review, pia.aliperti@review.com, 888-347-7737 ext. 1404

NOTE TO EDITORS: Robert Franek is available for interviews on the college-career connection or comment on colleges profiled in the book. He can also discuss The Princeton Review’s other projects that rank or rate schools based on career topics. They include the ranking list of colleges with “Best Career Services” in "The Best 381 Colleges" and the ranking lists of schools for "Best Career Prospects" in "The Best 294 Business Schools" and "The Best 172 Law Schools," plus the company's Career Rating scores for schools in those projects. A report on The Princeton Review 2017 “College Hopes & Worries Survey” findings is at www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/college-hopes-worries.       

The Princeton Review's 50 "Colleges That Create Futures"

Alphabetical by school
Alphabetical by state / city / school

Alphabetical by School

Note: the list is in alphabetical order. The schools are not ranked.

  • Alma College (MI)
  • Arizona State University
  • Babson College (MA)
  • Bryn Mawr College (PA)
  • City University of New York—Hunter College
  • Claremont McKenna College (CA)
  • College of Charleston (SC)
  • The College of William & Mary (VA)
  • Columbia University (NY)
  • DePauw University (IN)
  • Drew University (NJ)
  • Duke University (NC)
  • Franklin & Marshall College (PA)
  • The George Washington University (DC)
  • Gettysburg University (PA)
  • Harvey Mudd College (CA)
  • Haverford College (PA)
  • Hobart and William Smith Colleges (NY)
  • Lehigh University (PA)
  • Marist College (NY)
  • Middlebury College (VT)
  • New College of Florida
  • Northeastern University (MA)
  • Oberlin College (OH)
  • Pitzer College (CA)
  • Pomona College (CA)
  • Rhodes College (TN)
  • Rice University (TX)
  • Rochester Institute of Technology (NY)
  • Smith College (MA)
  • St. Lawrence University (NY)
  • Stanford University (CA)
  • State University of New York at Binghamton
  • Stevens Institute of Technology (NJ)
  • Swarthmore University (PA)
  • Trinity University (TX)
  • University of California—San Diego
  • University of Dayton (OH)
  • University of Florida
  • University of Houston (TX)
  • University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
  • University of Pittsburgh (PA)
  • University of Southern California
  • The University of Texas at Austin
  • Vassar College (NY)
  • Villanova University (PA)
  • Wagner College (NY)
  • Wake Forest University (NC)
  • Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute (MA)

Alphabetical by State

Arizona
Tempe / Arizona State University

California
Claremont / Claremont McKenna Colleges
Claremont / Harvey Mudd College
Claremont / Pitzer College
Claremont / Pomona College
La Jolla / University of California—San Diego
Los Angeles / University of Southern California
Stanford / Stanford University

District of Columbia
Washington DC / The George Washington University

Florida
Gainesville / University of Florida
Sarasota / New College of Florida

Indiana
Greencastle / DePauw University

Massachusetts
Babson Park / Babson College
Boston / Northeastern University
Northampton / Smith College
Worcester / Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Michigan
Alma / Alma College
Ann Arbor / University of Michigan—Ann Arbor

Missouri
St. Louis / Washington University in St. Louis

New Jersey
Hoboken / Stevens Institute of Technology
Madison / Drew University

New York 
Binghamton / State University of New York at Binghamton 
Canton / St. Lawrence University 
Geneva / Hobart and William Smith Colleges 
New York / City University of New York—Hunter College 
New York / Columbia University 
Poughkeepsie / Marist College 
Poughkeepsie / Vassar College 
Rochester / Rochester Institute of Technology
Staten Island / Wagner College

North Carolina
Durham / Duke University
Winston Salem / Wake Forest University

Ohio
Dayton / University of Dayton
Oberlin / Oberlin College

Pennsylvania
Bethlehem / Lehigh University
Bryn Mawr / Bryn Mawr College
Gettysburg / Gettysburg College
Haverford / Haverford College
Lancaster / Franklin & Marshall College
Pittsburgh / University of Pittsburgh—Pittsburgh Campus
Swarthmore / Swarthmore College
Villanova / Villanova University

South Carolina
Charleston / College of Charleston 

Tennessee
Memphis / Rhodes College

Texas
Austin / The University of Texas at Austin
Houston / Rice University
Houston / University of Houston
San Antonio / Trinity University

Vermont
Middlebury / Middlebury College

Virginia
Williamsburg / The College of William & Mary