To develop its 2020 list, The Princeton Review surveyed 140,000 students attending the 385 top colleges from the most previous lists and asked them to rate their schools on dozens of topics.
In the publication's profile of Duquesne, students appreciated the University's small class sizes, welcoming staff and that they could easily make strong connections with their professors. Students also noted Duquesne offers "great research opportunities" and that it's quite evident that faculty "care about the well-being of their students beyond academics." Students described their peers as hard-working and friendly.
For the Best Colleges: Region by Region, The Princeton Review features 656 colleges in five geographic zones. The colleges are considered to be academically outstanding and worth consideration in one's college search.
"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, editor-in-chief of The Princeton Review. "We are well aware, however, that applicants need more than an academic assessment to choose the colleges best for them. We created our dozens of ranking lists specifically to facilitate that search."