Vanderbilt is ranked No. 1 in the “Their Students Love These Colleges” category in The Princeton Review’s 2020 Best Colleges rankings. The ranking is based on student ratings of their overall satisfaction with their schools.
The university also took the top spot in “Best Quality of Life,” based on students’ opinions of the beauty, safety and location of their campus, their campus residence halls and food, their ease in getting around campus and in dealing with the administration, as well as, the friendliness of fellow students and interactions among different types of students on campus, and their overall happiness.
Opportunity Vanderbilt, the university’s initiative that supports more than 65 percent of Vanderbilt undergraduates who receive merit- or need-based aid, contributed to the university scoring the No. 2 spot in “Great Financial Aid” – a category in which students rate their overall satisfaction with their financial aid packages.
Each of the 62 annual college rankings lists report the top 20 colleges in a specific category. The rankings are entirely based on what students attending the schools say in surveys about their colleges and their experiences.
Vanderbilt also got high marks in several other categories, including Happiest Students (No. 2), Best Athletic Facilities (No. 2), College City Gets High Marks (No. 2), Best Run Colleges (No. 4), Most Beautiful Campus (No. 4), Lots of Greek Life (No. 5), Best Campus Food (No. 7), Town-Gown Relations are Great (No. 7), Professors Get High Marks (No. 9) and Most Engaged in Community Service (No. 10)
Other Top 20 rankings include Best College Theater (No. 11), Best College Newspaper (No. 14), Best College Dorms (No. 17) and Best College Library (No. 18).