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And now for the Princeton Review:
AIR FORCE ACADEMY LEANS TO RIGHT, SURVEY SAYS
By Patrick Winn - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 20, 2007 16:28:29 EDT
The Princeton Review's influential college rankings hold up Air Force Academy students as the nation's least likely to smoke marijuana, most likely to find professors accessible and among the most religious and right-leaning politically.
The rankings rate 366 colleges, universities and academies through the eyes of students, who are asked to evaluate 66 aspects of campus life through surveys. More than 120,000 actively enrolled students participated, an average of about 325 per school.
The academy ranked No. 1 in two categories: "Professors Make Themselves Accessible," the third straight year the academy has topped the list, and "Don't Inhale," a scoring of schools where marijuana use is low. It was No. 7 in "Stone-Cold Sober Schools," a look at drinking culture.
The academy was No. 11 in both "Is it food?," a ranking of schools with the worst dining options, and "Students Most Nostalgic for Ronald Reagan," a ranking of schools with conservative students.
It was ranked No. 19 in "Students Pray on a Regular Basis."
The "faint-hearted need not apply" to the academy, according to the Princeton Review.
On surveys, cadets portrayed the academy as academically stringent and demanding of their time and energy. It's hardly a party school, the review reported, with campus anti-drinking measures tightly enforced and freshmen restricted to a handful of passes allowing them to leave. Cadets also touted the unique training opportunities — combat, freefall and laboratory training — and the big payoff: becoming an Air Force officer.
Brig. Gen. Dana Born, dean of the academy, said she was particularly pleased with cadets' evaluation of professor accessibility.
"I think we attract a different student body than other schools," Born said. Air Force Academy cadets could "get into just about any of the top-ranking schools. Yet they make a decision to serve their country and go through a very rigorous program that will ultimately lead to them" joining the armed services and "potentially serving in harm's way."