Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges and two colleges outside the U.S. are profiled in the book, which is one of The Princeton Review's most popular guides. Published annually since 1992, it has detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores in eight categories. The book also has rankings lists of top 20 schools in the book in 62 categories. All of the ranking lists are based on The Princeton Review's surveys of students attending the colleges.

"We chose Quinnipiac University for this book because it offers outstanding academics,” said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's editor-in-chief and author of "The Best 382 Colleges.” "Our selections are primarily based on our surveys of administrators at several hundred four-year colleges. We also visit dozens of colleges each year and give considerable weight to opinions of our staff and our 24-member National College Counselor Advisory Board. Most importantly, we look at valuable feedback we get from each school’s customers – our surveys of students attending them. We also keep a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character."

A Quinnipiac Education

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges from 1 to 382 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 137,000 students (358 per campus on average) attending the colleges. The 80-question survey asks students to rate their schools on several topics and report on their campus experiences at them. Topics range from their assessments of their professors as teachers to opinions about their school's career services.