Posted: Monday, August 10, 2009 11:01 am

The Messenger 08.10.09
The University of Tennessee at Martin and Union University in Jackson are among five colleges in West Tennessee to be listed among the 141 Best Southeastern Colleges by The Princeton Review.
The New York City-based education services company selected the schools as two of 141 institutions it recommends in its “Best in the Southeast” section on its Web site feature, “2010 Best Colleges: Region by Region.”
UT Martin has earned the designation for seven consecutive years. Dr. Tom Rakes, UT Martin chancellor, said the designation is further evidence that the university provides a high-quality learning experience for students.
“Our students are among our best sponsors and we appreciate being designated as among the Best in the Southeast,” Rakes said.
“We chose UT Martin and Union University and the other terrific schools we recommend as our ‘regional best’ colleges primarily for their excellent academic programs,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s vice president of publishing. “We also work to have our roster of ‘regional best’ colleges feature a range of institutions by size, selectivity, character and locale. We choose the schools based on institutional data we collect from several hundred schools in each region, our visits to schools over the years and the opinions of independent and high school-based college advisors whose recommendations we invite.
“We also take into account what each school’s customers — their students — report to us about their campus experiences at them on our 80-question student survey,” he added.
Union University President David S. Dockery said, “We are grateful for the recognition by The Princeton Review, which is an indication of the quality of the education students receive at Union. Our outstanding faculty, staff and students are committed to excellence and deserve the credit for such honors as this.”
The 141 colleges The Princeton Review chose for its “Best in the Southeast” designations are located in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
The Princeton Review also designated 218 colleges in the Northeast, 123 in the West and 158 in the Midwest as best in their locales. The 640 colleges named regional best(s) represent about 25 percent (one out of four) of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.
The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in its 2010 Best Colleges Region by Region Web site section. The Princeton Review survey for this project asks students to rate their own schools on several issues — from the accessibility of their professors to quality of the campus food — and answer questions about themselves, their fellow students and their campus life.
The Princeton Review (www.PrincetonReview.com) is known for its tutoring and classroom test preparation courses, books, and college and graduate school admission services. Its corporate headquarters is in Framingham, Mass., and editorial offices are in New York City.
It is not affiliated with Princeton University and it is not a magazine.