The 2026 edition of "The Best 391 Colleges" ranks Elon University among the nation’s “Best-Run Colleges” while showcasing its career services, performing arts productions, residential facilities, dining options and intramural sports opportunities.
The Princeton Review has again featured Elon University in a popular college guide that annually recognizes excellence in dozens of categories that measured student feedback on their learning and campus experiences.
Elon’s profile in “The Best 391 Colleges: 2026 Edition” includes several recognitions:
#4: Best College Theater
#6: Everyone Plays Intramural Sports
#15: Best College Dorms
#16: Best Career Services
#19: Best-Run Colleges
#21: Most Beautiful Campus
#24: Best Campus Food
“The colleges we profile in our ‘Best Colleges’ book are a truly select group. They constitute only about 15% of America’s nearly 2,400 four-year institutions” said Rob Franek, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review and the book’s lead author. “While they vary by locale, type, size, and campus culture, each one offers its students an academically outstanding undergraduate education. In our opinion, they are the nation’s best undergraduate colleges and ideal choices for students seeking their ‘best-fit’ college.”
All lists are based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of students attending schools in the book who rate their own colleges on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences. The rankings are based on data from the company’s surveys of 170,000 students at the 391 schools in the book (about 435 per school on average) conducted in 2024–25 and/or the previous two academic years.
Select Responses Cited in “The Best 391 Colleges”
- Students find “many personalized resources that Elon provides to succeed beyond the classroom,” and an “amazing support system of resources for everyone.”
- Elon offers “massive amounts of leadership opportunities and is very hands-on when it comes to helping students get internships”
- Faculty “[serve] as teachers, but also as mentors for career and educational aspirations” who “will share their experience, knowledge, and connections with students after they have finished the course…which makes students feel incredibly supported during their four years.”
- Respondents described “a strong emphasis on well-being (mental and physical health), [and] it is common for students to be involved in on-campus jobs, community service, and research or internships.”
This is the 21st consecutive year Elon University has appeared in the Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” guide. The Princeton Review’s “Best Colleges” book premiered in 1992 and is one of 150 Princeton Review books in a line published by Penguin Random House. It has been featured on NBC “TODAY” more than a dozen times, and referenced by reporters in publications from “Inside Higher Education” to “The Wall Street Journal.”
Elon has been repeatedly recognized by The Princeton Review for excellence. During the past year, the university was named a “Best Value College” and a “Green College” by The Princeton Review, and the Love School of Business’s MBA program was listed among the best in the country. The Princeton Review has also named Elon Law as one of the best law schools in the country.