College rankings website Niche placed Washington University as No. 1 on its list of “Best College Campuses in America” for the second year in a row.

Niche determines its rankings using key statistics and student reviews as well as data from the U.S. Department of Education. To determine the best campus, Niche also considers factors such as campus food, local area, campus housing and safety.

Grace Bruton | Student Life

Niche assigned the University an overall grade of “A+” and ranked the University at No. 11 on its “Best Colleges in America” overall list. Niche also ranked the University at No. 1 for “Best Colleges for Architecture in America” for 2019.

Provost Holden Thorp is not surprised at the University’s campus ranking.

“This has been a focus of Chancellor Wrighton’s for the last 24 years. We have a physical environment for teaching research that is second to none in terms of its beauty and the way that spaces are set up for students and faculty to interact with each other, talk about new ideas,” Thorp said. “And it’s often very meticulously and deliberately planned by Chancellor Wrighton and the Board.”

Vice Provost for Admissions & Financial Aid Ronne Turner believes the campus is an important part of student life.

“We have an incredible campus, we’re an incredible institution and it’s great to be recognized,” Turner said. “I think it’s really important—students are spending four years on a college campus and they want to like that campus. They want the facilities to be good facilities. It’s going to be their home for a number of years and being in an environment that makes them feel comfortable as they are studying and working hard and walking across campus, in terms of beauty of the campus, it can help relax students.”

Turner doesn’t believe the ranking will affect students’ final decisions about the University.

“Most of the data and research that’s been done on the importance of rankings says that it doesn’t really impact the final decision but it may put an institution on a student’s list to investigate,” Turner said. “I think it’s very important again to make students feel at home. Prospective students, when they’re looking at colleges and universities, [look at] the beauty of the campus and facilities. I think [this] is a signal for the resources that an institution has and the type of experiences that a student may have.”

Niche also ranked the University the best college for architecture in the U.S.

“One [thing that sets the College of Architecture apart] is that we’re a freshman start program so that students really begin in architecture studios first year…Not every school has a program that begins first year right off the bat in design studios,” Associate Dean of Students in the Sam Fox School Georgia Binnington said. “I think another thing is what is offered for architecture students in the rest of Wash. U.—the idea that you’re on this wonderful university campus and although you’re studying a specific thing in art, architecture or design, you’re still able to study many other things as well. And I think that is part of what makes us different.”

Junior Javier Zarazua believes the faculty and class sizes set the architecture school apart as well.

“The faculty here are mostly practicing architects, so they have a lot of really great real-world experience. They know what works and what doesn’t when it comes to being a student outside of undergrad or trying to pursue a job or career, which is really cool,” Zarazua said. “I think another thing that really helps is the class sizes. Our classes tend to be really small so I get a lot of chances to have one-on-one discussions with professors, which I think is really great, specifically for architecture which can be arbitrary and subjective at times.”