Survey gives negative and positive reviews for Iowa colleges

The publishing house that ranks hundreds of the nation’s colleges every year got few positive responses for Iowa’s institutions this year, and a number of negative reviews. Erik Olson, editor of the “Best Colleges” guidebook, says Iowa’s two largest universities didn’t fare well at all.The University of Iowa is number-two in the category “professors suck all life from material,” number-three in “professors make themselves scarce” and number-11 under “class discussions rare” category. Iowa State University placed fifth under the “professors suck all life from material” and 14th on “professors make themselves scarce.” Olson says Grinnell College did the best of any Iowa institution and made six of the 63 lists.Grinnell was fifth on “students happy with financial aid,” fifth on “little race/class interaction,” sixth on “students most nostalgic for Bill Clinton,” sixth on “most politically active,” 11th on “gay community accepted” and 15th on “students ignore God on a regular basis.” No Iowa schools placed on the top “positive” lists, like best profs, best dorm life, or best campus food. Olson says Iowa’s larger schools shouldn’t be discouraged, as it’s an honor to even make some of the “negative” lists. He says students can still get a great education at any of the schools.Cornell College in Mount Vernon was the only other Iowa school to make one of the national lists — coming in at number-16 for “is it food?” — meaning the campus chow got very low marks. The complete lists can be viewed online at “www.princetonreview.com”.