NJIT Featured in The Princeton Review's 'Best 386 Colleges' Guide for 2021

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) has been named a top college according to The Princeton Review in the newest edition of its college guide, "The Best 386 Colleges," a designation only about 14% of America’s 2,800 four-year colleges have earned. NJIT also received honors as a top college in the Northeast region and a Best Value college.

Additionally, NJIT appears as a Top 50 College for Undergraduate Game Design and Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Studies.

The Princeton Review chooses the colleges for the book based on data it annually collects from administrators at hundreds of colleges about their institutions’ academic offerings. It also considers data it gathers from its surveys of college students who rate and report on various aspects of their campus and community experiences for this project.   

“NJIT’s continued recognition by The Princeton Review as one of the country’s finest institutions of higher education in their 2021 edition of ‘The Best 386 Colleges’ is a testament to the strong and supportive learning environment we provide for our students,” said Fadi P. Deek, provost and senior executive vice president of NJIT. “We are gratified by the comments of NJIT students surveyed about their campus experiences as well as their acknowledgment of the work done by our faculty, staff and administrators on their behalf.”

NJIT ranked No. 47 in the undergraduate game design ranking, according to The Princeton Review survey based on criteria that cover the quality of faculty, facilities and technology.

“I’m pleased that Princeton Review has, for the fifth consecutive year, included us in their list of top undergraduate schools to study game design,” said Glenn Goldman, director emeritus of NJIT’s School of Art + Design. “It is a recognition of the strong collaborative program we have between digital design in the School of Art + Design and information technology in the Department of Informatics.”

NJIT is ranked No. 41 among the Top 50 Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies for 2020 across the country, and is the only university in New Jersey to achieve this recognition.

“As New Jersey’s only public polytechnic university, and as an R1 institution (the Carnegie Classification for very high research activity), NJIT is uniquely qualified to develop technological innovation with societal significance and market potential,” remarked Cesar Bandera, associate professor of entrepreneurship at NJIT’s Martin Tuchman School of Management, who has completed the annual survey on the university’s behalf since 2015. “Placing among the Top 50 entrepreneurship programs in the county is a recognition of NJIT’s strengths in entrepreneurship curriculum, funding and mentorship for students and university-affiliated startups, and scholarly research and service in this discipline. There is no doubt — entrepreneurship is in NJIT’s DNA!”

Princeton Review also lauded NJIT earlier in 2020 as one of the top colleges with “truly the most exceptional in the nation at delivering great academics, affordable cost, and great career foundations.” At only 7% of the nation's four-year colleges, the list of institutions demonstrates a strong academic program and affordability, and offers strong opportunities for career prospects after graduation.

“An NJIT degree provides a pathway to career success, and that speaks to the value of the education received by our students,” said NJIT President Joel S. Bloom. “NJIT is ranked No. 1 nationally by Forbes for the upward mobility of students from the lowest income brackets. Our students have an average of approximately three job offers in hand during their senior year and attain starting salaries almost 20% above their peers across the country. And we are ranked among the top 2% out of more than 4,000 colleges and universities for alumni mid-career earnings.”

Additionally, NJIT is rated a 79/99 for its Green Rating by The Princeton Review, which provides a comprehensive measure of a school's performance as an environmentally aware and prepared institution—a 25% jump from the previous year.

“Sustainability is a key component of the university’s strategic plan — it is an institutional learning goal to ensure that our students graduate as global citizens,” said Andrew Christ, senior vice president for real estate development and capital operations. “We are working diligently on sustainability initiatives to discover and execute environmentally friendly programs, like the implementation of an onsite food composting machine developed by a student-faculty research partnership.”

One of The Princeton Review’s most popular publications, The Best 386 Colleges rankings are based on surveys of 143,000 students at 386 top colleges that include a wide representation by region, size, selectivity and character. Published annually since 1992, the book has detailed profiles of the colleges with rating scores in eight categories as well as ranking lists of schools in 62 categories. For more information on the rankings and methodology visit www.princetonreview.com/best386.