On Aug. 28, 2024, the Princeton Review released its official ranking in the category of Happiest Students on college campuses. The University of Dallas ranked fourth on the list. The other top five colleges were Auburn University at #1, Kansas State University at #2, Taylor University at #3, and Thomas Aquinas College at #5.
The Princeton Review is an educational services company founded in 1981 that provides private tutoring, test preparation and admissions information to students. They are known for their book, “The Best 390 Colleges”, which has a new edition released every year. They also release rankings of the top 25 college campuses in the United States in 50 different categories, covering eight general areas: Academics/Administration, Demographics, Quality of Life, Politics, Town Life, Social Scene and Extracurriculars. The category of “Happiest Students” falls under Quality of Life.
The Princeton Review makes their rankings by collecting information from students who attend the colleges on their “Best 390” list through an online student survey on their website, princetonreview.com. In 2024, the Princeton Review created their rankings based on data from 168,000 students.
According to the website, the description for the category “Happiest Students” is “based on how strongly students agree or disagree with the statement, ‘I am happy at my school’”.
Dr. Gregory Roper, dean of students, is an alumnus of UD and has been a professor at the university since 2000.
When asked about why UD ranks high on Happiest Students, he said, “I think it’s also related in a sense that there’s a higher purpose to the education here. I think that actually makes people happy. If we’re talking not just [about] the world’s sense of happiness, like ‘Oh, we’re all kind of cheerful and nice’, but a deeper sense of happiness that I think students probably report, it comes from creating a culture where you can pursue deeper sorts of happiness, where students feel involved in something larger than themselves, and everybody else is as well.”
In 2014, the Princeton Review ranked UD #4 in the category of Least Beautiful Campuses, which it has since removed from its annual press release.
In the same year, however, Rudolph Bush, editorial page editor for the Dallas Morning News, wrote an opinion piece praising the beauty of UD’s campus. Bush is an alumnus of UD, having graduated in 1997.
In his article, he said, “UD never made any pretensions to be other than where it is and what it is. The buildings, boxy as they are, fit the land around them… When I am there, it is a quiet place. There are little corners everywhere, little nooks you can find, where people study. It is a serious place. It is a place where people care deeply about what they are learning. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.”
Regarding UD’s architecture, Roper said, “I think the mall is unbelievably fantastic. And I know people say, ‘Oh, it’s not an attractive campus’. I don’t think people understand…that mall is perfect, the way that most of the academic buildings empty out onto the mall every 50 mins or every 75 mins, the way that enhances people gathering…I don’t care what you think of mid century modern— that’s a miracle…We should stop being defensive about this campus. We should start talking about how beautifully it’s designed.”
As well as ranking in the top 25 for Happiest Students, the University of Dallas is ranked on the top 25 lists at #6 for Most Conservative Students, #10 for Most Religious Students, #15 for College Dorms Not So Fancy, #7 for LGBTQ Un-friendly, #17 for Professors Get High Marks and #25 for Pot’s Not Hot.
When asked about the possible correlation of students being happy with campus political alignment, Roper said, “I do think it also has to do with a certain politics of freedom and openness. We’re a conservative school in today’s world, and that means more openness… There’s a lack of fear here and an ability to say that it’s an expansive Catholic and conservative and Western tradition… that we’re allowed to pursue truth wherever it goes, because we have the confidence that it’s never going to lead you astray if it’s true. So I think that leads to human happiness.”
Comparatively, Thomas Aquinas College ranks #1 for Most Conservative Students, Taylor University ranks #6, and Auburn University ranks #19.
As it stands now, UD seems a happy place to be.