Happy belated Earth Day! I was wondering how I could tie this holiday into a post here at the FinancialAidFinder, and figured it might be a little hard. But then today, I caught wind of this awesome story on my Google Reader with a new list of top colleges & universities.
Now before I tell you which schools earned the best marks, let me ask you this: What do you think makes a college attractive to potential students? For some of you, it might be the location, the reputation or the price point. But what about the greenness of a school? And no, I don’t mean grassy knolls and climbing ivy. I’m talking about how environmentally friendly a particular college or university is.
If sustainability is a tipping point for your college decision-making, you might want to check out the Princeton Review‘s Guide to 286 Green Colleges. Just as the Review ranks the tops colleges and universities based on academics and endowment-size, now green issues are becoming a ranking factor as well. Every school can earn a score from 60, on the lowest end, to 99, at the top. Princeton Review gave 15 schools a “perfect” score of 99, including (in alphabetical order):
1. Arizona State University
2. Bates College
3. College of the Atlantic
4. Colorado College
5. Dickinson College
6. The Evergreen State College
7. Georgia Institute of Technology
8. Harvard College
9. Middlebury College
10. Northeastern University
11. SUNY – Binghamton
12. UC – Berkeley
13. University of New Hampshire
14. University of Washington
15. Yale University
From composting food waste in the dining halls to solar powering class rooms and office buildings, these fifteen colleges and universities are excelling in leading a green revolution in higher education.
Is your school on the top 15 list? If not, where does it fall out? Are you proud of — or a little embarrassed by — your school’s standing? What can you do to help make your school a greener place to be between now and next Earth Day?
For more on sustainability, check out my post from October on greenreportcard.org.