BAR HARBOR — College of the Atlantic is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education, according to The Princeton Review. The education services company features the school in the new 2016 edition of its flagship college guide, “The Best 380 Colleges,” published August 4.

“College of the Atlantic’s outstanding academics are the chief reason we chose it for this book and we strongly recommend it to applicants,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP-Publisher and author of “The Best 380 Colleges”.

Published annually since 1992, The Princeton Review includes detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores for all schools in eight categories, plus ranking lists of top 20 schools in the book in 62 categories based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of students attending the colleges.

College of the Atlantic ranks among the top 20 in 11 categories, including #10 for Students Love These Colleges, #5 for Best Campus Food, and #17 for Best Quality of Life. The school is the only Maine college to rank in the top 20 in several lists, including #8 for LGBTQ-Friendly, #10 for Professors Get High Marks, and #14 for Most Beautiful Campus.

Only about 15% of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and only four colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book, which is one of The Princeton Review’s most popular guides.

“There are thousands of colleges in the country, and it’s fantastic to be recognized as one of the best in so many categories,” College of the Atlantic president Darron Collins ’92 said. “I think more than anything it speaks to the dedication that our faculty, staff and students have for this institution.”

In its profile, The Princeton Review grants College of the Atlantic 95 out of a possible 99 points for academics, 98 for interesting professors, 98 for quality of life and 98 for environmental commitment.

College of the Atlantic students are quoted extensively in the review, with one student stating that, “It’s hard for me to talk to friends at other schools because it’s not popular to love your college and academics as much as I do.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges from 1 to 380 in any category. Instead it uses students’ ratings of their schools to compile 62 ranking lists of top 20 colleges in the book in various categories. The lists in this edition are entirely based on The Princeton Review’s survey of 136,000 students (about 358 per campus on average) attending the colleges.

College of the Atlantic is also considered by the Princeton Review to be one of the best colleges in the Northeast, and one of the country’s top green colleges.

College of the Atlantic was founded in 1969 on the premise that education should go beyond understanding the world as it is, to enabling students to actively shape its future. A leader in experiential education and environmental stewardship, COA has pioneered a distinctive interdisciplinary approach to learning—human ecology—that develops the kinds of creative thinkers and doers needed by all sectors of society in addressing the compelling and growing needs of our world. 

The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep and college admission services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school-bound students achieve their education and career goals through online and in person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors, online resources, and its more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House. The Princeton Review is headquartered in Natick, MA and is an operating business of IAC (NASDAQ: IACI). For more information, visit princetonreview.com.