It may have been a rough month for Alabama on the football field, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to convince students in Tuscaloosa they have reason to worry. As a matter of fact, according to rankings compiled by The Daily Beast, The University of Alabama is one of the happiest colleges in the country — win, lose or draw.
“Student happiness is one of the most sought-after characteristics of four-year colleges and incoming students,” The Daily Beast wrote. “To measure how well the nation’s schools are doing, we considered full-time freshman retention rate according to the National Center for Education Statistics for 25% of the methodology. For the remaining 75%, we turned to College Prowler for student ratings on the overall student experience and whether they would do it all over again, as well as the quality of the student health center.”
Bama came in at number 17 on the list. Here’s how The Capstone scored in each category —
- Full-time Freshman Retention Rate: 86% (Stanford and Brown tied for the highest with 98%)
- Best Student Health Center: 9.2 (Central Florida pegged the meter with a perfect 10)
- Best Overall Student Experience: 9.7 (Johnny Football led Texas A&M to the only perfect 10)
- Would Do It All Over Again: 9.7 (Oklahoma St. alumni rated their school a perfect 10)
The study was part of The Daily Beast’s annual “Down & Dirty Guide to the Best Colleges.”
Other SEC schools on the list included Texas A&M (1), Florida (6) and Georgia (8).
The newly crowned BCS champs at Florida State came in at number 4. You can check out the full list in a slideshow on The Daily Beast’s website.
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.