Towson University again listed among top Northeast region colleges

By Jan Lucas on August 11, 2019

With students touting "a diverse and inclusive community" that offers "a never-ending fountain of free resources," Towson University is listed among the colleges and universities Princeton Review selected for its 2020 Best Regional Colleges.

TU is one of 225 colleges and universities selected for the Best Northeastern category. Princeton Review does not assign numerical rankings.

“Towson University continues to be recognized as one of the best colleges in the northeast,” said President Kim Schatzel. “This recognition is particularly meaningful because it reflects that students value the benefits of our inclusive campus culture and world-class faculty.”

The Princeton Review honor comes within the same week as the Center for World University Rankings, which placed Towson University in the top 9 percent in the world.

In addition to a thriving culture of volunteerism, active student organizations and opportunities to get involved on the campus, the Princeton Review listing also notes that despite approximately 20,000 undergraduates, students say “there are enough professors here [such] that learning is as personalized as it would be a smaller campus.” 

Students surveyed speak highly of small classes sizes in which “you can get to know your professors and classmates;” group work that “allows you to replicate the skills that you have been learning in class;” and teachers who “relate the material to the real world and show how we will use the material in real-life situations.” 

Students also say they like having “a lot of resources at our disposal if we ever need help academically, physically, or emotionally.” They boasted of TU’s proximity to Baltimore and D.C. for internships and job opportunities as well as the many ways “to get involved on campus, both academically and socially.”

The website feature consists of 656 schools in five zones—Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, West, and International—that Princeton Review considers academically outstanding and well worth consideration.

This year, the University of Maryland, College Park, UMBC and Salisbury joined Towson University among those in the University System of Maryland on the regional list.

TU has appeared in several Princeton Review publications over the years, including the Guide to Green Colleges.

Here's how TU stacks up in other rankings:

• The U.S. News & World Report 2019 America’s Best Colleges guide ranked Towson University 12th in the public Regional Universities (North) category. In addition, TU placed 68th on U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Value Regional (North) Universities ranking and 30th on its Best Colleges for Veterans list. TU also was named to the magazine’s A+ Schools for B Students list. 
• Money magazine ranked Towson University 147th on its 2018-2019 Best Colleges for Your Money list, where TU again joined the University of Maryland, College Park, and Johns Hopkins University as Maryland’s highest-ranked institutions.  
• Forbes ranked TU 305th in a field of 650 public and private colleges surveyed for its 2018 America’s Top Colleges list. TU also placed 181st out of 300 public and private institutions on the Forbes 2018 America’s Best Value Colleges ranking.
• Washington Monthly ranked Towson University 47th among the 150 colleges and universities surveyed for its 2018 Master’s category. The magazine also ranked TU 68th among the best value schools in its category.  
• Wall Street Journal / Times Higher Education 2019 student-sourced rankings put TU in the No. 484 slot on a national list of 968 U.S. colleges. WSJ/THE ranked TU 110th out of 286 on its regional list. TU is the University System of Maryland’s highest ranked regional campus.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel's priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and Strategic Plan Alignment.