It always strikes me as odd that the annual Princeton Review college rankings guide comes out in the year prior to the date listed in its title. But in this case, it makes me feel a bit less guilty about this super-delayed post about The Best 386 Colleges: 2021 Edition. Released in August, 2020, the guide appeared during a strange period in our history. College looks a bit different during the 2020-2021 academic year, with some students staying put at home and doing their coursework online. Tours are largely virtual and some students may even be putting their studies on hold until the pandemic abates.
Since 2008, I’ve been writing about the “Best College Radio Station” list that is included in Princeton Review’s annual rankings.
The 2021 list of the 20 colleges with the “best radio stations” has a nearly identical group of schools compared with the 2020 list. Numbers 1 through 17 were included in 2020. Once again, it’s a mix, including large universities with multiple radio stations as well as small liberal arts colleges with online-only stations. The biggest school on the list is Arizona State (around 44,000 students) and the tiniest is Reed College (around 1,400 students).
The northeast again dominates the list, with 10 schools from this region (including 6 from New York alone). California continues to be absent, although Oregon and Washington colleges are represented, for a total of 3 schools from the Pacific Northwest. The remaining colleges and universities hail from the Midwest, the South, the Southwest, and Canada.
Best = Popular
As a reminder, although the Princeton Review describes its college radio results as “Best College Radio Station,” the title doesn’t tell the whole story. Here’s the skinny:
1. Results are based on student surveys
2. Surveys were conducted at 386 colleges
3. Students are asked to judge the popularity, not the quality, of an unspecified campus radio station at their own college
4. Radio stations are not named in the survey or in the resulting rankings
5. Only schools surveyed can make it into the rankings, so college radio stations at schools that are not surveyed by Princeton Review won’t appear on the list
A number of colleges appearing on the “Best College Radio Station” list have multiple radio stations, including student-run stations, large public radio stations, and everything in between. It makes sense that students would indicate that their school’s radio station is “popular” if they are on a campus with a high profile professional radio station and/or with several radio stations.
Digging into Methodology
The 2021 college radio results are based on three years worth of survey data. Around 143,000 students from 386 colleges took the survey online, representing approximately 370 students per campus. Survey results for this edition are culled from responses given during the 2019-2020, 2018-2019, and 2017-18 academic years.
The survey asks: “How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements at your school?” and among the list of statements is: “College Radio Station is popular.” Respondents are given the following options: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Neither Agree or Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree.
How Similar is this Year’s List to Prior Lists?
For the 2021 Princeton Review list of “Best College Radio Stations,” 17 of the 20 schools were on the 2020 list. Of the three that were not on the 2020 list, none have appeared in the years that I’ve been tracking these lists (since 2008).
The complete list for the 2021 edition is listed below (for comparison, here are the lists from the 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009 and 2008 editions of Princeton Review).
2021 Princeton Review’s Best College Radio Stations
(aka Most Popular College Radio Stations)
Note: I’ve added station names and call signs as the Princeton Review only lists school names. Schools in bold were not on the list last year.
1. University of South Florida (WUSF 89.7 FM and Bulls Radio online/89.7 HD3/on campus 1620AM, Tampa, FL)
2. Emerson College (WERS 88.9FM and WECB, Boston, MA)
- Learn more on my WECB tour, which was Station Field Trip #1
3. Arizona State University (KASC 1330 AM, Tempe, AZ)
4. St. Bonaventure University (WSBU-88.3 FM, St. Bonaventure, NY)
5. Ithaca College (WICB 91.7 FM and VIC Radio, Ithaca, New York)
6. Syracuse University (WAER 88.3 FM, WERW, WJPZ 89.1 FM, Syracuse, NY)
7. McGill University (CKUT 90.3 FM, Montreal, Canada)
8. Reed College (KRRC, Portland, OR)
- Learn more on my KRRC tour, which was Station Field Trip #44
9. Louisiana State University (KLSU 91.1 FM, Baton Rouge, LA)
10. Columbia University (WKCR 89.9 FM, New York, NY)
- Learn more on my WKCR tour, which was Station Field Trip #141 and was also featured on Podcast #136
11. Manhattanville College (WMVL, Purchase, NY) – websites are down and the most recent social media activity was on Instagram in October, 2019
12. Seton Hall University (WSOU 89.5 FM, South Orange, NJ)
13. Hofstra University (WRHU 88.7 FM, Hempstead, New York)
14. University of Puget Sound (KUPS 90.1 FM, Tacoma, Washington)
15. Providence College (WDOM 91.3 FM, Providence, RI)
16. Denison University (WDUB 91.1 FM, Granville, OH)
17. Washington State University (KZUU 90.7 FM, KUGR and Northwest Public Radio, Pullman, WA)
18. Monmouth University (WMCX 88.9 FM, West Long Branch, NJ)
19. University of Notre Dame (WVFI and WSND 88.9 FM, South Bend, IN)
- Learn more on my WVFI tour, which was Station Field Trip #3 in 2008!
20. University of the South (WUTS, Sewanee, TN) – note that the university gave up the station’s FM license for WUTS 91.3 FM in December, 2019. The station continues as online-only.
Learn More about College Radio
If this is your first visit to Radio Survivor, take a look at our massive archive of college radio content. There’s a collection of radio news in the College Radio Watch column, we report on college radio culture on our weekly radio show/podcast, tour college radio stations regularly (well, when there wasn’t a pandemic!), and have a page devoted to college radio basics.
