Ohio Northern University is once again featured as one of the nation’s top schools in The Princeton Review’s annual college guide, “The Best 379 Colleges: 2015 Edition.” ONU also is one of the 158 institutions that The Princeton Review recommends in the “Best of the Midwest” section of its website feature, “2015 Best Colleges by Region.”

“We are pleased that this student survey again places ONU among the best universities in the country,” said Daniel A. DiBiasio, Ohio Northern University president. “This is reflective of the quality of our programs and personnel and the appreciation our students have for excellence.”

Only about 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges are profiled in the book, which is The Princeton Review’s flagship college guide. The Princeton Review reports the top 20 ranking colleges in these and 62 other categories on its website and in its guidebook.

The surveyed ONU students said, “The fairly remote location of Ohio Northern University has done little to prevent the school from developing a great academic reputation, especially in the Midwest.” This “great all-around school...really places an emphasis on life after college,” especially in “teaching students to think critically in and out of the box.” The goal of the teaching staff, students say, is “preparing their students to be contributing members of society” and giving them “the knowledge, skills and abilities to be successful throughout life.”

Comments about the student body noted that they are “intelligent and outgoing,” a “very friendly and easy to talk to” group that tends to have “strong leadership skills and is outgoing, compassionate, intelligent, and very involved on campus.”

Lawrence Lesick, vice president of enrollment, said, “The survey reinforces our commitment to attracting students with high academic standards who are engaged as soon as they arrive on campus. The comments from the student survey confirm that Ohio Northern is a university whose faculty and staff are committed to providing students with the tools to achieve their goals when they graduate. That’s why 94 percent of our students have jobs or are attending  graduate/professional schools within six months of commencement.”

The 158 colleges chosen by The Princeton Review for its “Best in the Midwest” list are located in 12 states: Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Collectively, the 623 colleges named “regional best(s)” constitute about 25 percent of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.