One company took a look at Texas Tech and made a decision: The university's 30,000 students could've done worse.
The Princeton Review, a New York-based educational services company, chose Texas Tech as one of the best colleges in the western United States for 2009.
"We are, in my opinion, and have been for some time one of the very best (universities) in the nation," said Tech Chancellor Kent Hance, "and it thrilled me that The Princeton Review recognized what I have known for quite some time. It ties in with my motto for Texas Tech: 'It's more than a great education.'"
Every year, The Princeton Review identifies schools that it considers to be the best in the country, said Jeanne Krier, a spokesperson for the company. There are 632 colleges that received regional designations like Tech's, including 120 in the West.
Krier said it is special for a school to be chosen by The Princeton Review because there are about 2,500 four-year colleges in the United States, which means one out of every five schools receives an honorary title from the company.
The Princeton Review's college evaluation process has many steps, and, before it is chosen, a school must first be seen as academically outstanding to the National College Advisory Board, she said, which is 25 college advisers across the country who make suggestions about the schools. Also, a representative of the company visits and evaluates about 50 campuses per year.
"The third thing they do is they try a real balance of schools from different states - large schools and small ones, men's colleges, women's colleges and so forth - so it gives a prospective applicant a nice variety of great schools to consider," Krier said.
A large part of the evaluation process involves student surveys that are done online and on paper then distributed on campus, she said. These surveys give officials an insight into how students feel about their campus life.
The schools that were chosen as the best in their respective regions are not ranked from first to last but grouped as a whole.
"The Princeton Review does not rank schools normally, and we do that for a very important reason," Krier said. "We really don't think you can ever say there is a best school, one single best school, in the country. And ranking has become something that we think people sometimes pay a little too much attention to and will not help someone know if that school is the best school for them."
Hance said he thinks the student surveys are an integral part of the evaluation process.
"The students are the consumers and students know whether they are getting a good education," he said. "They know the conditions of the campus, what kinds of professors they have. Some people take a discount of anything that asks the students, but the students are very smart and very wise about the university and they're consumer savvy. If they're getting a good deal and a good education they'll say so. To me it means more than any other group."
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