Thomas Aquinas College Named 1 of 50 in the Country by the Princeton Review
(August 6, 2009)
SANTA PAULA, CA-Thomas Aquinas College is one of the country's
best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The
Princeton Review. The education services company features the 4-year,
Catholic school in the new 2010 edition of its popular guidebook,
The Best 371 Colleges (Random House / Princeton Review, July 28,
2009, $22.99).
Of special note in this year's report on Thomas Aquinas College
is that the school is one of only 13 in the country to be named
to the first-ever "Financial Aid Honor Roll," receiving
a highest possible rating of 99. It also received a rating of 99
for its academics, and is one of the "Top 50" institutions
in the country. Further, it is ranked in the Top 20 in 8 of 62 additional
categories, including as #1 for "Most Religious Students."
Noting that the report is based largely on what students themselves
say about the institutions that are profiled, Thomas Aquinas College
President Peter L. DeLuca said, "It is gratifying indeed to
see how pleased our students are with their educational experience
on account of both our rigorous academic program and our generous
financial aid policy. I am also delighted to see the spiritual fervor
of these young people recognized by The Princeton Review."
This flagship annual college guide by The Princeton Review profiles
only the best of America's 2,500 four-year colleges - about 15%
of them. It includes detailed profiles of the colleges with school
rating scores in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20
schools in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review's surveys
of students attending the colleges.
Says Robert Franek, Princeton Review's V.P., Publishing and author
of The Best 371 Colleges, "We commend Thomas Aquinas College
for its outstanding academics, which is the primary criteria for our
choice of schools for the book….We make our choices based on
institutional data we gather about schools, feedback from students
attending them, and input from our staff who visit hundreds of colleges
a year."
In its profile on Thomas Aquinas College, The Princeton Review
quotes extensively from Thomas Aquinas College students who were
surveyed for the book. Among their comments about their campus experiences
is this one about their teachers: "'The academic experience
is amazing….This journey, when it is not self-inspiring, receives
the infallible impetus from all the professors at the school, who
are inspiring models of inquiry, wonder, and disciplined understanding."
And there is this comment about the program as a whole: "The
goal here is 'to discover the truth by studying the greatest minds
of Western thought,' and students agree that this approach 'far
out-strips most others because eternal truth is the end goal, not
just some credentials for a job later. Not accidentally, this does
actually produce more capable, honest, and self-giving individuals.'"
The Princeton Review's 62 ranking lists in "The Best 371 Colleges"
are entirely based on its survey of 122,000 students (about 325
per campus on average) attending the colleges in the book. The 80-question
survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and
report on their campus experiences at them. Topics range from student
assessments of their professors, administrators, financial aid,
and campus food.
In a "Survey Says. . ." sidebar in the book's profile
on Thomas Aquinas College, The Princeton Review lists topics that
Thomas Aquinas College students surveyed for the book were in most
agreement about in their answers to survey questions. The list includes:
"Class discussions encouraged," "No one cheats,"
and "Dorms are like palaces."
The school profiles in "The Best 371 Colleges" also have
ratings that are based largely on institutional data The Princeton
Review collected during the 2008-09 academic year. The ratings are
scored on a scale of 60 to 99 that are tallied in eight categories.
Among the ratings in the profile on Thomas Aquinas College are scores
of 94 for "quality of life" and 98 for "admissions
selectivity."
The Princeton Review posts the school profiles and ranking lists
in "The Best 371 Colleges" on its site <www. PrincetonReview.com>
at which users can read FAQs about the book, the survey, and the
criteria for each of the ratings and rankings.
The schools in "The Best 371 Colleges" are also part
of 640 colleges and universities that The Princeton Review commends
in its website feature, "2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region
- Northeast / Midwest / Southeast / West."
For information about admissions please email admissions@thomasaquinas.edu,
visit the website at www.thomasaquinas.edu,
or call 1-800-634-9797.
ABOUT THOMAS AQUINAS COLLEGE:
Thomas Aquinas College is a four-year Catholic liberal arts college
with a fully-integrated curriculum composed exclusively of the Great
Books, the seminal works in the major disciplines by the great thinkers
who have helped shape Western civilization. There are no textbooks,
no lectures and no electives. Instead, under the guidance of faculty
members and using only the Socratic method of dialogue in classes
of no more than 20, students read and discuss the original works
of authors such as Euclid, Dante, Galileo, Descartes, the American
Founding Fathers, Adam Smith, Shakespeare, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton,
Einstein, Aristotle, Plato, St. Augustine, and of course, St. Thomas
Aquinas. Graduates consistently excel in the many world-class institutions
at which they pursue graduate degrees in fields such as law, medicine,
business, theology and education. They have distinguished themselves
serving as lawyers, doctors, business owners, priests, military
service men and women, educators, journalists and college presidents.
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