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The University of Hawaii at Manoa has broken into the Top 10, but it's a list that administrators may not point to with pride. UH ranks high in
dubious categoriesBy Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-BulletinThe latest Princeton Review rankings of 331 colleges in 62 categories, which will hit bookstands Tuesday, say students at Manoa are dissatisfied with the amount of financial aid available, don't study and worry that too many student assistants teach upper-division classes.
But David Robb, UH director of admissions and records, said students and parents shouldn't place too much stock in the review since "it wasn't a very scientific study."
"As I recall, we helped by hiring one student who passed out the surveys on one day two years ago and about 20 students filled them out on the fly," he said.
"It's all a gimmick," Robb said. "They've got to sell books and every year there is a new twist."
Robb said students and parents should rely on more than just one college guidebook.
In the area of financial aid, UH ranked sixth out of the worst 20 colleges, according to the survey of students. First on the list was Hampton University in Virginia.
The survey also said Manoa students believe that student assistants teach too many upper-level classes. Hawaii came in seventh in that category, which was topped by the University of Iowa.
UH Manoa students also don't believe they hit the books very often. When asked about bad study habits, UH students came in eighth. Students at the University of Montana at Missoula put their school at the top of that list.
Robb said UH's studies indicate that Manoa students' study habits follow the pattern of an average large public university.
UH did better in the category of accessibility of its professors, where it ranked No. 20. In this category, which ranks whether students believe professors make themselves scarce, Arizona State University was first.
Robert Franek, one of the authors of "The Best 331 Colleges -- 2001," said students who were surveyed were asked about 70 questions about their school's academics, campus life and study body, as well as their study hours, politics and opinions.
Franek said 59,000 students at 331 colleges rated their own schools. (That's an average of 148 students per school.)
"We had the top 10 percent of the schools in the country participating in the survey," he said.
The Princeton Review, a New York-based educational services company, has been doing these surveys for seven years, updating a third of the 62 categories every year, Franek said. It is not affiliated with Princeton University.
In other categories, Princeton University led the list for academics; Louisiana State University was named the best party school, and the top jock school is the University of Notre Dame, which also was rated as having the highest support for its sports teams.
Students at 331 colleges were asked to rank their schools in 62 categories, and a top-20 list was compiled for each category. Here are the categories in which UH made the top 20: UH-Manoa, as
seen by students
Most dissatisfied with financial aid: No. 6
No. 7
Source: Princeton Review
University of Hawaii
