7 Maryland Colleges Make Princeton Review’s 2023 ‘Best’ List

MARYLAND — Seven colleges in Maryland are among the nation’s 388 best, according to The Princeton Review’s “Best 388 Colleges: 2023 Edition.”

The 388 colleges on the list aren’t ranked; however, the top 25 colleges were ranked in 50 categories designed to help guide those making college choices to institutions that best fit their academic and personal needs.

For the first time, the categories include “green matters,” which names the colleges students give high marks for their commitment to the environment and conservation on their campuses.

The Maryland colleges that made the 31st annual list are:

• Goucher College, Baltimore (23rd for Most Liberal Students and 18th for Reefer Madness)
• Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (25th in Top 50 Best Value Colleges — Private Schools)
• Salisbury University, Salisbury (23rd in Best College Library)
• St. John's College, Annapolis (50th in Top 50 Best Value Colleges (Private Schools); 7th in Best Classroom Experience; 6th in College Dorms Not So Fancy; 6th in Everyone Plays Intramural Sports; 14th in Lots of Race/Class Interaction; 24th in Most Accessible Professors; 6th in Professors Get High Marks; and 24th in Students Study the Most.)
• St. Mary's College of Maryland, St. Mary's City (16th in Green Matters: Everyone Cares About Conservation and 8th in Top 20 Best Schools for Making an Impact (Public Schools)
• United States Naval Academy, Annapolis (9th in Best Science Lab Facilities; 13th in Best Student Support and Counseling Services; 12th in Cancel the Keg; 20th in College City Gets High Marks; 17th in College Dorms Not So Fancy; 14th in Everyone Plays Intramural Sports; 8th in Lots of Race/Class Interaction; 10th in Most Conservative Students; 20th in Most Engaged in Community Service; 4th in Pot’s Not Hot; 6th in Scotch and Soda, Hold the Scotch; 23rd in Students Love Their School Teams; and 5th in Town-Gown Relations are Great)
• University of Maryland, College Park in College Park (22nd in Best College Theater; 10th in Top 50 Entrepreneurship: Ugrad; 24th in Top 50 Green Colleges; and 2nd in Top Northeast Entrepreneurship: Ugrad)

The list is based on 160,000 student surveys that asked students to rate their professors, administrators, school services, and other aspects of life at their colleges and to report on their campus and community experiences. Read more about the methodology.

This year, The Princeton Review expanded the number of colleges ranked for excellence in the categories to 25 from 20, and also dropped the “schools by type” ranking titled Birkenstock-Wearing, Tree-Hugging, Clove-Smoking Vegetarians, and its inverse list, Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Princeton Review also dropped its Party Schools and Stone-Cold Sober Schools this year.