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Allegheny College has again been named one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education by The Princeton Review in its 2021 publication of “The Best 386 Colleges.”

The Princeton Review’s 29th annual report on the nation’s institutions of higher learning includes 29 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania. The institutions were selected based on “our high opinion of their academics,” the Princeton Review said. The organization says it monitors colleges “continuously and annually” to collect data on more than 2,000 schools. In determining the “best,” The Princeton Review says it also visits schools, and communicates with hundreds of college administrators in compiling its assessment.

“We pay close attention to feedback we get about colleges from students, parents, educators, and our own staff at The Princeton Review locations across the country,” the organization said.

The latest edition of The Princeton Review notes that Allegheny students say most of their weekdays “are full of books and weekends revolve around some sort of on-campus fun.” It also notes that the “majority of the student body prides itself on social justice and service work.”

The guidebook says of the College: “Allegheny’s Admissions Committee values the hard work you do on a daily basis, and they give the greatest weight to the rigor of your high school courses and your performance. Also considered are your school/community activities, recommendations, personal character and qualities, essay, demonstrated interest, and special talents. Allegheny’s holistic application review embraces the concept that standardized test scores do not exclusively reflect a student’s full range of abilities or potential to succeed in college. As a result, Allegheny is test optional.”

The Princeton Review also states that when it comes to sustainability, “Allegheny College is determined not just to participate in the green movement, but to lead. One hundred percent of the campus electricity is generated through wind sources and two on-campus solar arrays, and the school strives for energy efficiency through regular energy audits, retrofits (nearly all buildings on campus have undergone energy-related renovation or retrofitting in the past several years), geothermal wells, education, submetering, and dorm competitions that promote environmental responsibility.”

The Princeton Review’s rankings in 62 categories are based on surveys of college students, who rate their schools on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences exclusively for this project. The ranking lists reported in this edition are based on surveys of 143,000 students at the 386 colleges in the book.

Earlier this year, Allegheny was included as a Best Value College for 2020 in a feature The Princeton Review posted on its website. The feature profiles 200 schools that the education-services company selected out of 656 institutions for the project.