For the fifth consecutive year, Florida Southern College has been included in The Princeton Review’s prestigious guidebook
The 379 Best Colleges, remaining among the top 15 percent of America’s 2,500 four-year colleges. Florida Southern was chosen for its academics and its quality of student life, marking it as one of the country’s best institutions for undergraduate education.
The Princeton Review recognized FSC once again for its campus beauty and exceptional architectural heritage. The College ranked the No. 10 “Most Beautiful Campus,” the fifth successive year that FSC has been ranked among the top 10 most beautiful campuses in America.
In addition, Florida Southern’s renowned living-learning community was recognized as a national leader in student engagement and campus life. The Princeton Review ranked the College No. 12 in its list of intramural sports participation. It was the fourth consecutive year FSC has been ranked in the top 20 in the nation in this category, Everybody Plays Intramural Sports.
For the first time, FSC was included in the Lots of Greek Life category, ranking No. 13. FSC has seven fraternities and six sororities, with about one-third of the student body belonging to a Greek organization.
The Best 379 Colleges reports 62 lists of top 20 colleges in various categories. The lists are based on The Princeton Review’s survey of students at the colleges.
Rob Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publisher and author of The Best 379 Colleges, said, “Florida Southern College offers outstanding academics, which is the chief reason we selected it for the book. We base our choices primarily on data we obtain in our annual surveys of administrators at these schools and at hundreds of other colleges.”
FSC President Anne Kerr said the rankings confirm the college’s place among the elite schools in the country.
“Florida Southern College provides our talented students with a beautiful campus and vibrant activities in which to learn and thrive, creating a dynamic living-learning community that promotes the highest academic achievement. I’m pleased that The Princeton Review, once again, has recognized that Florida Southern is among the best schools in the nation for its academics and its quality of student life,” she said.
FSC is home to the largest collection of structures designed by renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 2012, the college was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior, and last year a newly constructed, Wright-designed Usonian house was opened to the public. In 2011, FSC was selected as one of the nation’s “Ten College Campuses with the Best Architecture” by the preeminent journal Architectural Digest.
Architect and architectural scholar Jeff Baker of Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker in Albany, N.Y., stated, “The Florida Southern campus is considered by many to be among the most significant architectural achievements ever created by mankind. Wright’s Florida Southern and Thomas Jefferson’s University of Virginia are the two most architecturally important campuses in America.”
Over the past several years the college has completed numerous beautification projects, including Mr. George’s Green, a popular and attractive green space for student activities, and a striking new athletic complex, the Wynee Warden Tennis Center. In addition, the Wynee Warden Dance Studio will be dedicated in the fall, and the Becker Business Building, which will be the fourth building designed for Florida Southern by the distinguished architect Robert A.M. Stern, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, is under construction.