August 7, 2015
10,000 Ojai Road
Santa Paula CA 93060
Contact: Anne Forsyth, Director of College Relations
(805) 525-4417      

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Princeton Review Gives College High Ratings: Academics, Financial Aid & Quality of Life

Kudos Include: “Great Financial Aid,” “Best Classroom Experience”& “Most Religious Students”

SANTA PAULA, CA—August 7—Thomas Aquinas College provides one of the best undergraduate educations in the country, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features the four-year, Catholic college in the 2016 edition of its annual guide, The Best 380 Colleges. Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges are profiled in the publication, The Princeton Review’s flagship college guide (Penguin Random House / Princeton Review Books, $23.99), that went on sale earlier this week.

Among the ratings for Thomas Aquinas College are scores of 95 for academics, 97 for quality of life, and 99 for financial aid. In this scoring system, 99 is the best possible score. Not only did Thomas Aquinas College receive a perfect rating for its financial aid program, it is the only Catholic college on The Princeton Review’s list of 20 “Great Financial Aid” schools. The guide also lists the college as one of its Best Western colleges,

“Thomas Aquinas College’s outstanding academics are the chief reason we chose it for this book, and we strongly recommend it to applicants,” says Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publisher and author of The Best 380 Colleges. “We base our choices primarily on data we obtain in our annual surveys of administrators at these schools and at hundreds of other colleges. We take into account input we get from our staff, our 23-member National College Counselor Advisory Board, our personal visits to schools, and the sizable amount of feedback we get from our surveys of students attending these schools.”

“We are delighted that The Princeton Review has once again featured Thomas Aquinas College in its annual guide,” says the college’s dean, Dr. Brian Kelly. “Of particular note are the high scores we received for our academic and financial aid programs, and for our students’ ‘quality of life.’ Our goal has always been to provide the best education at the most affordable price, and The Princeton Review profile offers some strong evidence that we are succeeding.”

In its profile of Thomas Aquinas College, The Princeton Review quotes extensively from students at the College who were surveyed for the book. Among their comments:

• Thomas Aquinas College is a school that “takes learning seriously for its own sake, not just as preparation for a job.”
• The College has “a strong Catholic identity” and “a rigorous curriculum.”
• The College offers a “holistic education” that is “demanding on every level,” in “an atmosphere of trust and faith that makes it easier to study, to live, and to grow.”
• “You get all kinds of people here — but one thing they have in common is a desire to search for the truth.”

The guide also reports 62 ranking lists of “Top 20” colleges in various categories. The lists are based entirely on The Princeton Review’s survey of 136,000 students attending the colleges in the book and not on The Princeton Review’s opinion of the schools. The survey asks students to rate their own schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them. Topics range from assessments of their professors to opinions about their financial aid and campus food. Among the “Top 20” ranking lists on which Thomas Aquinas College appears are:

• #1 for Most Conservative Students
• #2 for Most Religious Students
• #8 for Best Financial Aid
• #13 for Best Classroom Experience

About Thomas Aquinas College

Thomas Aquinas College has developed a solid reputation for academic excellence in the United States and abroad. At Thomas Aquinas College, there are no majors, no minors, or electives because all students acquire a broad and fully integrated liberal education. The College offers one 4-year, classical curriculum that spans the major arts and sciences. Instead of reading textbooks, students read the original works of the greatest thinkers in Western civilization — the Great Books — in all the major disciplines: mathematics, natural science, literature, philosophy, and theology. Rather than listening to lectures, they engage in rigorous Socratic discussions about these works in classes of 15-18 students. The academic life of the college is conducted under the light of the Catholic faith and flourishes within a close-knit community, supported by a vibrant spiritual life. Genuinely committed to upholding civic virtue and leading lives dedicated to the good of others, Thomas Aquinas College graduates enter a wide array of fields where they are a powerful force for good in the Church and in the culture. Well-versed in rational discourse, they become leaders in education, law, medicine, journalism, public policy, military service, and business. In addition, a steady 10% of alumni go on to the priesthood or religious life.

About The Princeton Review

ounded in 1981, The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is a privately held education services company headquartered in Framingham, MA. The Company has long been a leader in helping college and graduate school–bound students achieve their education and career goals through its test preparation services, tutoring and admissions resources, online courses, and more than 150 print and digital books published by Random House, Inc. The Princeton Review delivers its programs via a network of more than 5,000 teachers and tutors in the U.S.A., Canada, and international franchises. The Company also partners with schools and guidance counselors worldwide to provide students with college readiness, test preparation and career planning services.