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Simmons College Named A "Best College" By U.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review and Forbes.Com

BOSTON (August 22, 2008) — Simmons College has been named a "Best College" in its category in the 2009 U.S.News & World Report rankings of "America's Best Colleges." Simmons also is listed as one of the nation's "Best 368 Colleges" in the Princeton Review's new 2009 college guidebook, and Forbes.com has ranked Simmons as one of "America's Best Colleges 2008" in its inaugural ranking of undergraduate colleges and universities.

Simmons College President Helen Drinan said, "All of us in the Simmons community are delighted that national college guidebooks recognize Simmons as a leading institution of higher education."

U.S.News & World Report, often cited as the premier college-ranking publication, placed Simmons College in the top tier of schools in its category of master's-level universities in the northern United States.

Being ranked in "America's Best Colleges" by U.S.News & World Report is determined by factors such as academic reputation, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni support.

The Princeton Review editors said the schools in their guidebook are "first-rate academically," but with varying campus cultures and offerings. Inclusion was based on the editors' survey of 120,000 students attending the colleges (about 325 per campus average). The 80-question survey asked students about the schools' academics, administration, campus life, student body, and themselves.

In their summary of Simmons College, the Princeton Review editors said the "excellent academics and Boston location" of the undergraduate women's college "make Simmons a worthy option" for women.

Forbes.com ranked Simmons College as one of "America's Best Colleges 2008" in its inaugural ranking of undergraduate colleges and universities. The list, which will be published annually, ranks 569 of the nearly 4,000 undergraduate institutions in the nation, using a methodology that the Forbes.com editors say "attempts to put itself in a student's shoes," basing their ranking on "the quality of the education they [the colleges] provide, and how much their students achieve."

Forbes.com ranked schools in conjunction with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) and Dr. Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University.

Simmons College is a small private university located in the heart of Boston. It includes a pioneering undergraduate college for women, and graduate programs for women and men in health sciences, social work, management, library and information science, education, liberal arts, and communications management.