24 PA Colleges Make Princeton Review’s 2023 ‘Best’ List

PENNSYLVANIA — A total of 17 colleges in Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania colleges that made the 31st annual list are:

1. Bryn Mawr College
2. Dickinson College
3. Ursinus College
4. Grove City College
5. Indiana University of Pennsylvania
6. Franklin and Marshall College
7. Gettysburg College
8. University of Pennsylvania
9. Drexel University
10. Lafayette College
11. Temple University
12. University of Scranton
13. Lycoming College
14. Lehigh Univeristy
15. Villanova University
16. Muhlenberg College
17. Haverford College
18. Penn State University Park
19. Swarthmore College
20. Bucknell University
21. Saint Joseph's University
22. Susquehanna University
23. University of Pittsburgh
24. Gettysburg College

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.

Editor's note: a previous version of this story omitted colleges that were on the list in Pennsylvania. The story has been corrected.