NEW YORK, Dec. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — The Princeton Review ®, one of the nation’s leading education providers, today shared its annual look back at some of the company’s key offerings over the past year and look ahead to some projects in the works for the year ahead.
Millions of people use one or more of The Princeton Review’s education resources each year. Students use the company’s products and services to score their best on tests; tackle school assignments; improve their grades; research and gain admission to undergraduate, graduate, and medical schools, and maximize their prospects for scholarships and financial aid. Post-graduates use the company’s resources to upskill for career advancement as well as prepare for and pass professional licensing exams.
In 2023, The Princeton Review’s products and services included:
• Test-prep Courses. Offered for more than 26 tests, the courses are available in various options and formats from live online to self-paced. Some carry the company’s Better Score Money Back Guarantee. Among The Princeton Review courses for tests taken by applicants to graduate and medical schools—the GMAT®, GRE®, LSAT®, and MCAT®—the company’s LSAT 165+ and MCAT 515+ courses were the most popular in 2023. Among its courses for tests taken by applicants to colleges—the SAT®, ACT®, and AP® subject tests—The Princeton Review’s SAT 1400+ course was the most popular in 2023.
During this transitional year for the SAT, the company provided test-prep programs that supported students in the U.S. preparing for the final administrations of the current SAT as well as programs for international students preparing to take the Digital SAT which debuted in test centers abroad in January. The Digital SAT will debut in the U.S. in March 2024. This year, the company has also been diligently tracking planned (or implemented) revisions on other major tests and updating its resources for students preparing to take them.
Princeton Review courses and resources for professional licensing and certification exams include its USMLE® Test Pack for MD candidates taking the medical licensing exam, and its suite of resources for the NCLEX-RN®, the exam required for licensing as a Registered Nurse. These include its NCLEX-RN LiveOnline course, NCLEX Self-Paced course, and NCLEX-RN QBank . In 2023, the company updated its NCLEX-RN products to align them with the NGN (Next Generation NCLEX) revision of the text which debuted in April.
The company also has test prep courses for the Level I, Level II, and Level III CFA® (Chartered Financial Analyst®) exams. In 2023, the company updated its course materials for these exams to align them with revisions that will be in the 2024 administrations of the tests. This year, Princeton Review also added free practice tests for the Level I CFA exam to its CFA exam prep resources.
In March, a marketing partnership with Surgent Accounting & Financial Education enabled The Princeton Review to offer its customers exclusive discounts on Surgent’s exam review products for the CPA® (Certified Public Accountant), CMA® (Certified Management Accountant), and CISA® (Certified Information Systems Auditor) exams.
• Tutoring online and on demand 24/7 in 80+ subjects via The Princeton Review’s hubs, The Academy and Homework Help. At The Academy, tutors help students in grades 6–12 earn higher grades in their school subjects and prepare for tests. In 2023, the top two subjects for which the company’s tutors provided academic help were Algebra and Pre-Calculus. At the Homework Help hub, tutors help students tackle school assignments. In 2023, the top two subjects for which the tutors provided homework help were Algebra II and Calculus.
• Admissions Counseling for college and medical school applicants. Some of the “dream” schools to which students working with Princeton Review college admission counselors gained admission in 2023 are Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, and Stanford. Overall, students were accepted at 205 unique institutions and awarded more than $8M in financial aid. Applicants to medical schools who worked with the company’s admissions counselors this year gained admission to the top 20 medical schools in the U.S. as well as top medical schools outside of the U.S. including the University of Cambridge, the University of Melbourne, and the University of Toronto.
• Books. The Princeton Review’s line of 150+ books, distributed by Penguin Random House, includes test-prep guides, college guides, and study aids. In 2023, the company published the 38th annual edition of its first-ever test-prep book, its guide to the SAT, and the 35th annual edition of its guide to the ACT. The Princeton Review has also published regularly updated guides to the GMAT, GRE, LSAT and MCAT for decades. In 2023, several of the company’s guides to AP subject tests were designated as bestsellers by Amazon.com in its AP Subject Test Guides category. In recent weeks, four of the five bestselling AP test guides in this category have been Princeton Review books, including the #1 bestseller which is The Princeton Review Premium Prep Guide to the AP U.S. History test. The company’s guide to the Digital SAT has been the #1 bestseller in the Amazon.com College Entrance Test Guides category. Other Princeton Review books published in 2023 include: GMAT & GRE Math Made Easy, SAT Level Up! Math, SAT Level Up! Verbal, Essays That Kicked Apps, The K&W Guide to Colleges for Students with Learning Differences (16th Edition), and the 32nd annual edition of the company’s flagship college guide, The Best 389 Colleges.
• AI Tools. This year, The Princeton Review debuted its first generative AI-based tools: AI College Admissions Essay Counseling and AI Homework Essay Feedback. Students using these innovative resources can upload essays they have written and within seconds receive feedback, evaluation, and recommendations of ways to make their essays even better. Designed with input from The Princeton Review’s college admission and tutoring experts, the tools provide feedback on clarity, coherence, conciseness, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and more. (Note: These products do not write the student’s essays.) On December 14, these two tools were named 2023 New Product of the Year award winners by Campus Technology and THE Journal, two of the leading edtech publications.
In 2023, The Princeton Review also:
• Reported school rankings in dozens of categories, including its:
Best Business Schools and Best Law Schools (January)
Top Undergrad and Grad Schools to Study Game Design (March)
Best Value Colleges (April)
Best Colleges (August)
Top Green Colleges (October)
Top Undergrad and Grad Schools to Study Entrepreneurship (November)
• Conducted national education surveys, including its:
College Hopes & Worries 2023 Survey. This survey, which The Princeton Review has annually conducted since 2003, polled 12,225 college applicants and their parents in February on their application perspectives, need for financial aid, levels of stress about college admission, “dream” college (the school they wished they (or their child) could attend if acceptance was a given and cost not a concern), and other topics. Among the findings reported in March: the #1 “dream” college among students surveyed was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology while Princeton was #1 among surveyed parents; 82% of respondents overall said financial aid would be “very necessary” to pay for college.
College Administrator Summer 2023 Survey. Now in its 4th year, this Princeton Review survey polled administrators at 229 colleges in July on their enrollment forecasts, test optional policies, and views on the Digital SAT, AI, the recent Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action, and more. Among the findings: the majority (89%) of administrators surveyed reported their colleges were test optional while 10% reported their schools were test blind, and 1% said their schools required test scores. College-level coursework on applicant transcripts is gaining importance in admission decisions. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of respondents to the 2023 survey deemed AP, IB, or dual enrollment coursework “important” on an applicant’s transcript—a 7% increase over respondents so indicating in 2022.
In 2023, The Princeton Review also surveyed administrators at 2,000+ higher education institutions about their school offerings, policies, applicant requirements, and more. The company also surveyed students at hundreds of colleges and graduate schools about their campus experiences at their schools and ratings of them. Data collected from these surveys informs The Princeton Review’s school rankings and its school profiles on PrincetonReview.com and in the company’s annual Best Colleges guide.
• Provided free resources for students, parents, teachers, counselors and working professionals:
From college night talks to test strategy sessions to career-related webinars, The Princeton Review hosted thousands of free events in 2023. The company’s education experts also wrote and recorded dozens of videos that were uploaded to The Princeton Review’s YouTube channel which now comprises 575 videos. These lively videos present company experts sharing updates on changes in standardized tests, tips for taking and scoring well on exams, strategies for gaining school admission, and short features about colleges. In 2023, the video most viewed on The Princeton Review YouTube channel was: “The New Digital SAT: Everything You Need to Know.”
• Was widely referenced in media programs, articles, and newscasts:
Each year, many national, regional, and local members of the media reach out to The Princeton Review for information, comment, and interviews about education issues. In 2023, Rob Franek, editor in chief of The Princeton Review, appeared on several national broadcasts including an August 18 segment on NBC TODAY that was his 30th appearance on the show. It featured his advice for college applicants, report on the company’s annual Best Colleges rankings, and comments on education issues in the news. Other national media interviewing Rob or fellow Princeton Review author/experts in 2023 included: CNBC; Yahoo Finance Live!, The Chronicle of Higher Education; and Teen Kids News. Media also reported on the company’s rankings of hundreds of institutions that publicized their Princeton Review rankings in their news releases, websites, and social media channels in 2023. Many schools are citing them anew in their end-of-year retrospectives of their school distinctions.
Projects The Princeton Review has in the works for 2024 include:
• Continuing updates of the company’s website and its online, tutoring, and book resources for the many standardized tests that have undergone (or will be undergoing) substantial revisions. These include the new Digital SAT and new Digital PSAT/NMSQT®, a new edition of the GMAT (the GMAT Focus), a new format for the LSAT, and changes in professional licensing exams including the NCLEX-RN.
• A new MCAT in-person course. Debuting in January, this intensive course will feature new uses of technology and a team-teaching approach. It will concentrate on weekend, in-person sessions that will enable students to connect with the instructors and their fellow learners.
• Updated editions of the company’s college-related books. Among them: The Best 390 Colleges: 2025 Edition, which will reveal the top 25 schools in 50 categories based on the company’s surveys of 165,000 college students who rated and reported on their schools for this project, and Paying for College: 2025 Edition, which will include detailed guidance on completing the 2025-26 FAFSA® (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). The FAFSA has undergone a major overhaul that was mandated by the U.S. Congress in 2019 with the passage of the FAFSA Simplification Act. The significantly revised (although not entirely simplified) 2024-25 FAFSA will be released on December 31, 2023. (Note: the FAFSA is annually updated.)
• A campaign to expand awareness of mental health services on college campuses. Supported by a partnership with the Ruderman Family Foundation, this Princeton Review project is collecting data from administrators at more than 2,800 colleges about the availability of mental health services and resources at their schools. The company is also surveying college students about their awareness of such services and resources on their campuses. In late summer 2024, The Princeton Review will output this data in various ways, including reporting information about the schools’ mental health services in its college profiles on PrincetonReview.com.
“As The Princeton Review begins its 43rd year, we remain committed as ever to the company’s mission: to help students learn, score their best on tests, and succeed in school and beyond” said Joshua HJ Park, CEO of The Princeton Review and Tutor.com. “Since The Princeton Review’s founding in 1981, the company has delivered its services across an ever-expanding range of instructional formats and pioneered innovative uses of technology to advance education. Our launch this year of our first AI products—two resources that could only have been imagined in 1981—underscores our commitment to our founding mission. We look forward to developing new and exciting ways to help students learn in 2024 and succeed in their education and career goals.”
About The Princeton Review
The Princeton Review is a leading tutoring, test prep, and college admissions services company. Every year, it helps millions of college- and graduate school-bound students as well as working professionals achieve their education and career goals through its many education services and products. These include online and in-person courses delivered by a network of more than 4,000 teachers and tutors; online resources; a line of more than 150 print and digital books published by Penguin Random House; and dozens of categories of school rankings. The company’s Tutor.com brand, now in its 23rd year, is one of the largest online tutoring services in the US. It comprises a community of thousands of tutors who have delivered more than 25 million one-to-one tutoring sessions. The Princeton Review, headquartered in New York, NY, is not affiliated with Princeton University. For more information, visit PrincetonReview.com and the company’s Media Center. Follow the company on X (formerly Twitter) (@ThePrincetonRev) and Instagram (@theprincetonreview).
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WEBSITE: www.princetonreview.com
SOURCE The Princeton Review
