The Massachusetts-based education services company—widely-known for its test-prep courses, books, and student survey-based college rankings—profiles Psychology Professor Gary Lewandowski in its new book, The Best 300 Professors.
Published April 3, 2012, The Best 300 Professors is a project that The Princeton Review teamed up with RateMyProfessors.com – the highest-trafficked college professor ratings site in the U.S.—to develop. The book’s impressive roster of top teachers features professors in more than sixty fields ranging from Accounting to Neuroscience to Sport Management. They hail from 122 colleges and universities across the nation.
The selection process took into account qualitative and quantitative data from survey findings and ratings collected by both The Princeton Review and RateMyProfessors.com. The professors featured in the book are a truly select group: from an initial list of 42,000 professors considered, the final group of “best” professors chosen constitutes less than .02% of the roughly 1.8 million post-secondary teachers instructing students at colleges and universities across the U.S. The professors in the book are not ranked (nor are their colleges ranked in this book) but each professor profiled received high ratings from their most important audiences, beneficiaries, and critics: the students they teach and inspire.
Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Thomas Pearson commented: “Congratulations to Professor Lewandowski on this well-deserved honor. His enthusiasm and passion for teaching, notable research, and excellent rapport with students make him an outstanding teacher and valuable member of the Monmouth University community.”
Said Robert Franek, Princeton Review’s Senior VP / Publisher, “We developed this book as a tribute to the extraordinary dedication of America’s undergraduate college professors and the vitally important role they play in our culture, and our democracy. One cannot page through this book without having tremendous respect for the powerful ways they enrich their students’ lives, their colleges, and ultimately our future as a society. Together with his students who rated him so highly, we salute Monmouth University Professor Gary Lewandowski and each of the other professors we profile for their outstanding teaching. We are truly pleased to recommend them—and the schools at which they teach—to college applicants and their parents who use our resources.”
In its profile on Professor Lewandowski, The Princeton Review editors describe how he “sets challenging but achievable goals” and is approachable and always willing to help.” The write-up also includes comments from students of Professor Lewandowski surveyed by The Princeton Review who described him as “the best teacher I have ever had in my entire school career. He’s funny and makes class enjoyable.”
Professor Lewandowski’s courses include Experimental Methods and Intimate Relationships, which is his own research specialty, and the class he considers to be the one most like to have a direct impact on students’ lives. Professor Lewandowski commented, “Students can improve their existing relationships, avoid bad relationships, or leave failing relationships. So many students from the class have told me how the course has changed their lives that I’ve lost count.”
Dr. Lewandowski received the 2011 New Jersey Psychological Association’s (NJPA) Emerging Researcher Award. He has published over twenty articles in highly respected journals and he has been awarded twelve grants funded by a number of organizations such as American Psychological Association (APA) and Association for Psychological Science. He is the co-creator of www.ScienceOfRelationships.com, a site dedicated to teaching about relationships through research. He is also a co-editor of the book, “The Science of Relationships: Answers to your questions about dating, marriage and family,” and he has co-authored fourteen book chapters. He has presented his research at over seventy peer reviewed conferences. He is a mentor to his undergraduate students, who are often involved in these publications and presentations. Dr. Lewandowski’s research is extremely insightful, engaging, and inspiring and he has been featured on numerous media outlets such as CNN and The New York Times.
The Best 300 Professors also includes profiles of the colleges at which one or more of the book’s top-notch professors teach. The school profiles give students considering attending these colleges information on admissions, tuition, SAT/ACT score ranges of admitted students, and other useful data. In the profile on Monmouth University in the book, the editors, note “Monmouth University is a small school with a close-knit community” and “the campus is awash with friendly vibes and happy, engaged students.”
The Best 300 Professors is one of nearly 150 Princeton Review books published by Random House in a line that also includes The Best 376 Colleges, the Princeton Review’s flagship college guide. Monmouth University is among the 15% of the nation’s colleges and universities that are featured in The Best 376 Colleges: 2012 Edition, published August 2011.
The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University and is not a magazine.
How The Professors Were Chosen
The Princeton Review and RateMyProfessors.com annually collect data from students at thousands of colleges across the country (and abroad) about their classroom experiences and assessments of their professors. For this project, The Princeton Review culled an initial list using its surveys of hundreds of thousands of students that revealed the colleges at which students highly rated their professors’ teaching ability and accessibility. Data from RateMyProfessors.com identified more than 42,000 professors at those schools that students had rated on its site. Combining this info, a base list of 1,000 professors was formed. After obtaining further input from school administrators and students, as well as from Princeton Review’s surveys of the professors under consideration, the editors of The Princeton Review made the final choices of the professors they profile in the book.
About Monmouth University
Monmouth University is a leading private institution that offers a comprehensive array of undergraduate and graduate degree programs. The University provides students with a highly personalized education that builds the knowledge and confidence of tomorrow’s leaders. Located in West Long Branch, New Jersey, Monmouth University’s magnificent and historic campus is approximately one hour from both New York City and Philadelphia and is within walking distance of the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean. Monmouth University is listed in the Princeton Review’s The Best 376 Colleges and U.S.News & World Report’s “Best Colleges.”
About The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review (Nasdaq: REVU) has been a pioneer and leader in helping students achieve their higher education goals for 30 years through college and graduate school test preparation and private tutoring. With more than 165 print and digital publications and a free website, www.PrincetonReview.com, the company provides students and their parents with the resources to research, apply to, prepare for, and learn how to pay for higher education. The Princeton Review partners with schools and guidance counselors throughout the U.S. to assist in college readiness, test preparation and career planning services, helping more students pursue postsecondary education. The company also owns and operates Penn Foster Education Group, a global leader in online education, providing career-focused degree and vocational programs in the fields of allied health, business, technology, education, and select trades through the Penn Foster High School and Penn Foster Career School (www.pennfoster.edu). For more information, visit www.PrincetonReview.com.
About RateMyProfessors.com
RateMyProfessors.com is the highest-trafficked U.S. college professor ratings site (comScore), with more than 7,500 schools and over 13 million ratings, providing an automated system for quickly researching and rating more than 1.5 million professors from colleges and universities across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The site reaches more than 4 million college students each month.
###
Media Contact for Monmouth University: Petra Ludwig at 732-263-5507 or pludwig@monmouth.edu
Media Contacts for The Princeton Review: Jeanne Krier, Princeton Review Books, 212-539-1350 or Joseph Iovino, Director of Public Relations, 888-865-7737, ext 5678, JIovino@review.com