Knox College ranks among the top U.S. colleges in the 2020 edition of The Princeton Review’s annual guidebook, The Best 385 Colleges, which was published this month.

Schools that are included in the guidebook were chosen primarily because of the quality of their academics. Only about 13% of U.S. four-year colleges are profiled in the newest edition of the book, published by Penguin Random House.

"We chose the 385 colleges for this edition as our 'best' overall, academically, based on data we gathered in 2018–19 from more than a thousand school administrators about their schools' academic programs and offerings," said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review's Editor-in-Chief and lead author of the book.

The guidebook lists the 385 schools alphabetically and doesn’t rank them hierarchically, from 1 to 385.

Here are some excerpts from The Princeton Review's survey of Knox students:

• Knox College enjoys a “great academic reputation” for its dedication to providing a “well-rounded liberal arts program” that “values independent initiative.”
• Professors “concentrate on the student having good critical thinking skills.”
• Knox has “one of the best creative writing programs in the country.”
• Knox faculty and administration “not only encourage the students to take charge and make change, but they listen and act on the student body’s opinions.”
• There is a “highly diverse combination of creative, intellectual minds here.”