Two N.J. Colleges Have Among Worst Professors In U.S. And Canada, New Rankings Show

Two New Jersey colleges are among the three top schools with the worst professors in the U.S. and Canada, according to rankings released this week.

The New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, with 8,008 enrolled, and Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, with 2,976 enrolled, finished first and third on the worst professors list, respectively, provided by the Princeton Review's 25th annual college rankings.

The United States Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., which has been under fire recently for sexual assault allegations, finished second, according to the rankings.

The Princeton Review's college rankings lists are entirely based on what students attending the schools in tell the publication about their colleges and their experiences. The rankings are tallied in the book The Best 381 Colleges, published this month.

The rankings based on the data from surveys of 143,000 students at the 381 schools in the book, including a survey that has 80 questions in four sections.

"We ask students about: 1) their school's academics/administration, 2) life at their college, 3) their fellow students and 4) themselves," according to the Princeton Review website.

Students answer by selecting one of five answer choices that range across a grid or scale. The answer choice headers might range from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree" or "Excellent" to "Poor": some are percentages with ranges from "0–20 percent" to "81–100 percent."

Here is the entire list in the "Professors Get Low Marks" section of the site:

1. New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark
2. United States Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, N.Y.
3. Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken
4. University of Hawaii-Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii
5. State University of New York--Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, N.Y.
6. University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, Calif.
7. University of Connecticut, Storrs, Ct.
8. University of Louisville, Louisville, Ky.
9. McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
10. St. John's University, Queens, N.Y.
11. Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Mich.
12. City University of New York-Queens College, Flushing, N.Y.
13. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D.
14. Howard University, Washington, D.C.
15. Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill.
16. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
17. University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus, Pittsburgh, Pa.
18. Hampton University, Hampton, Va.
19. Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge, La.
20. Purdue University-West Lafayette, West Lafayette, Ind.