Wooster earns 2026 Best 391 Colleges distinction from Princeton Review — The College of Wooster

Once again, The College of Wooster earned recognition as one of the nation’s top schools by The Princeton Review in its guidebook, The Best 391 Colleges: 2026 Edition. The Princeton Review uses surveys of 170,000 students from across the country attending the colleges to make their distinctions. Wooster is also among those named for the “Best Value Colleges” and “Best Midwest” lists.

While the Best Colleges guidebook does not rank the schools 1-391, it includes several ranking lists of the top 25 colleges in specific categories based on students’ answers to several questions. The College profile for Wooster includes several categories for which the College was selected, and among Ohio schools, Wooster ranked highest on the Most Accessible Professors and Best Science Lab Facilities Top 25 lists. Wooster rankings include:

• Most Accessible Professors – No. 16
• Best Classroom Experience – No. 21
• Best Science Lab Facilities – No. 9
• Best College Library – No. 24

The book’s editors at The Princeton Review call out Wooster for its “tight-knit community,” strengths in mentoring, and vast opportunities for research and internships—recognizing the school’s emphasis on reflective experiential learning. The publication also notes the close ties that form between students and professors. Professors are enthusiastic and passionate about their fields and their goal “to shape their students into lifelong learners,” according to students surveyed. Students at Wooster also cited the Independent Study program, in which all students participate, as “an opportunity to work with a faculty mentor on a project in any topic they are passionate about.” One student summarized their experiences at the College, saying “Wooster is a community of learners working together to help one another reach their full potential and goals.”

Called “dazzling,” Wooster’s campus is recognized for an “unparalleled” community made up of “quite a range of people” who are “very accepting of different personalities, beliefs, and ways of life.” Students are characterized as “very involved” in extracurricular and co-curricular opportunities. They take part in a variety of sports, clubs, music ensembles and groups, and other activities that suit their interests and find many ways to celebrate school pride and Scot spirit.

Only about 15% of America’s 2,400 four-year colleges are profiled in Princeton Review’s The Best 391 Colleges, published by Penguin Books. Princeton Review chose the colleges for the book based on data it collects from annual surveys of 2,000 college administrators about their institutions’ academic offerings and data from its surveys of college students attending the schools who report on their experiences at their institutions. The annual book and its rankings have been featured on NBC’s TODAY more than two dozen times and referenced by many other media from NPR to The Wall Street Journal and The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Princeton Review is an education services company known for its tutoring, test-prep, admission services, books, and other learning resources. Headquartered in New York, New York, it is not affiliated with Princeton University.

Featured image: Professor Olivia Navarro-Farr mentors a senior archaeology student as she completes research for her Independent Study.