Goucher once again has been included in The Princeton Review’s annual college guide, The Best 380 Colleges. The college also was named one of best institutions in the Northeast and was highlighted for its study abroad program and commitment to environmental sustainability.
Goucher’s profile reads: “Providing ‘a small, liberal-arts education’ with a ‘fantastic location’ just outside Baltimore, Goucher College’s academic environment is one where students are encouraged to ‘develop close relationships with professors, and with other students.’ Goucher offers a ‘small college feel’ and a ‘gorgeous campus’ to its ‘tight-knit community.’ Goucher students ‘understand that exploring cultures outside your own is important’ and pursue a ‘focused track of study within a well-rounded and rigorous liberal arts curriculum.’”
Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the United States are profiled in the guide. The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book academically or numerically. Instead, it includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, plus lists of top 20 schools in 62 categories based on surveys of 136,000 students attending the colleges (average 358 per campus). The 80-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics, including their school’s professors, library, career services, and athletic facilities.
Goucher students surveyed for the book express high satisfaction with their academic experience. Many of them cited Goucher’s study abroad requirement as a primary reason for choosing the college because it helps to create a “globally-minded and social justice oriented” student body. In Goucher’s small, intimate classes, students are challenged to exceed their own goals through the college’s “immense focus on transcending boundaries to explore and grow.” Students say a Goucher education is a “sound choice to further any career path I choose.”
Students name Goucher as among those “colleges that change lives” and sum up their experience as “a rigorous education in a green environment, with a focus on community and world awareness.” Goucher undergraduates say, “We’re motivated, socially active students who really care about the world we live in.”
The rating scores (from 60 to 99) in the eight categories are based on institutional data The Princeton Review collected during the 2014-15 academic year and/or its student surveys. Rating categories include: academics, admissions selectivity, financial aid, fire safety, and green ranking, a measure of school’s commitment to the environment in its policies, practices, and education programs. Among the ratings in the Goucher’s profile are scores of 89 for academics and 93 for its green rating.