Dreaming of a college with top-tier campus food, outstanding dorms, and students who are happy and passionate about their sports teams? According to The Princeton Review, the University of Dayton might just be your ideal choice.
The University of Dayton lands on The Princeton Review's top 25 lists for "Best College Library," "Best-Run Colleges," "Best Campus Food," "Best College Dorms," "Students Love Their School Teams" and "Happiest Students."
UD also earned recognition as a "Best Midwest," "Best Value College," and is included in the "Colleges That Create Futures," "Green Colleges" and "Top Entrepreneurship" categories in The Princeton Review's The Best 391 Colleges: 2026 Edition.
"The colleges we profile in our 'Best Colleges' book are a truly select group. They constitute only about 15% of America's nearly 2,400 four-year institutions," said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review and the book's lead author. "While they vary by locale, type, size and campus culture, each one offers its students an academically outstanding undergraduate education. In our opinion, they are the nation's best undergraduate colleges and ideal choices for students seeking their 'best-fit' college.
"The colleges that make our ranking lists do so entirely as a result of their own students' opinions of them. We don't rank colleges based on our opinion of them nor would we crown a school 'best' overall. It is what the students attending the colleges in this book tell us about their experiences at their schools that determines on which lists the schools appear in our book."
Here are some of the things students told The Princeton Review:
- There are many reasons to attend the University of Dayton, but the one mentioned above all is its experiential learning. "We have opportunities for real world experience in every major" (and sometimes even further independent expertises by department), like "the Sophomore Experience Entrepreneurship Program that gives students a $5,000 grant to run their own microbusiness." Engineers have space, time, and resources to build rigs and run experiments, "the music program is phenomenal," and minicourses in subjects like microeconomics utilize the Dayton area to show "the interaction between economics and the environment through outdoor excursions that were often very informative." All of this is backstopped by the professors, to whom students give high marks.
- Undergrads at the University of Dayton overwhelmingly agree that their peers are "very sweet," and "super welcoming and approachable" people who foster a strong sense of community and school spirit. Given the "relatively small class sizes, it's easy to get to know a lot of people in your major" and others more simply describe it as common to see "strangers quickly become friends and friends become like family."
Published since 1992, The Princeton Review's "Best Colleges" book profiles schools the company's editors and staff deem the nation's best based on data gathered from their survey of administrators at more than 2,000 schools as well as input from college advisors and admissions experts. The profiles feature information on admission and aid application requirements, acceptance rates, accepted students' test scores, and enrollment and student body demographics. The book's 50 ranking lists are entirely based on surveys of students attending the schools. Read the University's full profile on The Princeton Review.