As a new generation of students embarks on its collective college career, many will no doubt be in for a surprise. The dorms looked great on the tour, but the showers were dirty. The school’s marketing materials didn’t say anything about the awful food. And nobody mentioned the nonexistent nightlife. It’s too bad there isn’t a Consumer Reports: College Edition.
Well, there is, sort of. Every year Bloomberg Businessweek partners with College Prowler, which surveys college students throughout the U.S. and uses those surveys to grade each school on everything from academics to nightlife to off-campus housing.
We asked College Prowler to provide ratings in 20 different categories for the schools that are home to our top 50 undergraduate business programs and to give us a sampling of what students were saying about their schools. If you like what you see, click on the business school name to learn more about its undergraduate program or visit College Prowler to learn more about specific ratings.
This year the University of Texas at Austin boasted the most satisfied students, scoring As (including pluses and minuses) in 13 categories, including an A+ in both local atmosphere and nightlife and As in athletics, girls, and guys. The worst? That would be Loyola University Maryland, which racked up Cs and Ds (including pluses and minuses) in nine categories, including a D+ in diversity and another for off-campus housing.
There was no shortage of beautiful people, either. In all, eight schools received A+ grades for either guys or girls, and two—Miami University and Villanova—won top honors for both.
