The Princeton Review has once again included Fairfield University among the nation’s best in its flagship guide, The Best 388 Colleges: 2023 Edition. Additionally, the education services company placed Fairfield at #23 nationally on its list of “Best-Run Colleges.”

This year, the Princeton Review reported the top 25 schools (of the 388 ranked) in each of 50 category rankings. The category rankings are generated annually as a result of students' reports about their schools and their college experiences.

Based on data from surveys of 160,000 students at the nation's top-ranked 388 colleges, each school is given a score. According to the Princeton Review, “Using these scores...we are able to tally our ranked lists. Schools that make it onto any of our 50 'Top 25' lists are those at which the surveyed students (as a group) indicated a very high consensus of opinion about that topic.”

The Princeton Review’s 50 "Top 25" category ranking lists fall within eight general areas: Academics/Administration, Quality of Life, Politics, Campus Life, Town Life, Extracurriculars, and Social Scene. The “Best-Run Colleges” ranking falls under Academics/Administration and reflects student responses “based on how strongly students agree or disagree with the statement, ‘My school runs smoothly.’”

The Princeton Review’s list of "Best 388 Colleges for 2023" and its "Top 25" category ranking lists were recently posted on PrincetonReview.com. Profiles of the 388 colleges appear in the companion book, The Best 388 Colleges: 2023 Edition (Penguin Random House). Since 1992, the Princeton Review’s annual Best Colleges guides have showcased, on average, only about 14 percent of America’s four-year colleges, and are among the most popular of the company's 150 publications.