One of just 121 institutions receiving The Princeton Review’s Best in the West mention, California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) was selected primarily for its excellent academic program. Collectively, there were 629 colleges named in the 2012 Best Colleges: Region by Region list released on Aug. 1, a total that constitutes only about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.
“We’re especially pleased with The Princeton Review’s continuing determination that Cal State Long Beach is one of the best universities in the West and, just as important, that we continue to rank among the 50 public universities that Princeton Review considers the nation’s best collegiate values,” said CSULB President F. King Alexander.
For this project, The Princeton Review asks students attending the schools to rate their own schools on several issues— from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food— and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students, and their campus life. Comments from surveyed students are quoted in the school profiles on The Princeton Review site. The profiles also have a Survey Says list that reveals topics about which students surveyed at the school were in highest agreement.
With each recognized university, the website highlights comments made by students in the surveys in the areas of academics, campus life and student body.
“We’re pleased to recommend Cal State Long Beach to users of our site as one of the best schools to earn their undergrad degree,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s senior vice president for publishing. “From several hundred schools in each region, we winnowed our list based on institutional data we collected directly from the schools, our visits to schools over the years, and the opinions of our staff, plus college counselors and advisors whose recommendations we invite.”
