The 2008 edition of the Princeton Review's annual college guidebook, The Best 366 Colleges, has ranked Temple's undergraduate student body the most diverse in the nation.

Temple's unprecedented No. 1 status in Best Colleges is the culmination of a long and steady rise in the Princeton Review's "diverse student population" rankings. Temple has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past five editions of Best Colleges and eight of the past nine editions. The university debuted in the top 20 in the 1995 edition and made its first appearance in the top 10 in the 1998 edition.

Temple is the only Pennsylvania college or university to make the 2008 "diverse student population" top 20 in Best Colleges.

The diversity of Temple's student body "makes [Temple] a great place to learn and live" and a "full cultural experience," wrote one student survey respondent in Best Colleges' main entry on Temple. "All students feel welcome here," wrote another.

The diversity of Temple's faculty also was cited as an important positive component of the university's academic environment. "Due to the diverse nature of both the faculty and student body," wrote a student survey participant, "professors usually challenge us to assimilate disparate cultural views and to affirm or change our own views of other cultures."

According to university enrollment statistics, nearly one-third of Temple undergraduates report their ethnicity as African American, Hispanic, Asian American or Native American. Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine ranks Temple No. 6 among American universities in the total number of bachelor's degrees awarded to African-American students. Of the five universities ahead of Temple, three are historically black institutions.

The Princeton Review's student surveys also praised Temple for its computer facilities, library, athletic facilities and off-campus food, all of which are described as "great."

Business, entrepreneurship also shine in rankings

The dawn of the fall 2007 semester also brought good rankings news for undergraduate business and entrepreneurship programs at Temple.

U.S.News & World Report ranked two of the Fox School of Business' undergraduate programs — international business and risk management and insurance — No. 7 in the nation, marking the second consecutive year both programs have been ranked in the top 10. (Fox's undergraduate risk management and insurance program has held a top 10 ranking four times in the last five years).


In the September 2007 issue, Fortune Small Business magazine anointed Temple's entrepreneurship program — spearheaded by Fox's Innovation and Entrepreneurship Institute — one of the top 25 entrepreneurship programs for undergraduates in the nation.


Fortune Small Business cited Temple's universitywide council on entrepreneurship, which creates interdisciplinary courses and workshops for Temple students in all fields. One of the magazine's judges lauded Temple's entrepreneurship certificate program, which was praised for giving students an "opportunity to gain entrepreneurship experience without having to major in the subject." Temple's program was one of two in Pennsylvania to make the list, along with the University of Pennsylvania's.