UTM was named a “Best Southeastern College” by The Princeton Review for 2007.

“University of Tennessee at Martin is one of 146 schools . . . receiving our ‘Best in the Southeast’ designation,” said Robert Franek, The Princeton Review’s publisher and editorial director. “We believe these schools uphold the standards of our ‘Best Southeastern College’ distinction and provide students with a wide breadth of excellent schools to consider.”

To be considered by The Princeton Review for “Best Southeastern College,” UTM had to meet the requirements of academic excellence within its region and have its students anonymously surveyed. UTM’s students were surveyed during the 2004-05 academic year, which corresponds to The Princeton Review’s general policy of a survey every three years due to previous surveys indicating that student opinion does not change significantly from one year to the next.

Surveyed students answered more than 80 basic questions, mostly multiple-response, that were divided into sections such as “About Yourself,” “Students” and “Life at Your School.”

Students were also given eight open-ended questions to make comments regarding the student body, academics and campus life at UTM. This section, named “Students Say” by The Princeton Review, allowed students to express their praises and criticisms anonymously without the limitation of pre-written responses.

The multiple-response and “Students Say” answers will aid in the recruitment of future students and in creating a better environment for current students. UTM faculty and staff use these comments as a measure of the university’s effectiveness in meeting student’s expectations of academics, campus life, housing and other needs of students.

“I am pleased that The Princeton Review has chosen to recognize UT Martin in its new ranking,” said UTM Chancellor Dr. Nick Dunagan. “Our students do the best job of telling the university’s story, and these comments accurately reflect the experiences that many of them have at UT Martin.”

In addition to UTM, other schools who were named a “Best Southeastern College” were East Tennessee State University, Freed-Hardeman University, Tennessee Technological University and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

For anonymous, unbiased and uncensored comments by students or to see how UTM rated, visit The Princeton Review’s website at www.princetonreview.com.