Academy ranks top in professor availability for 4th time Published July 29, 2008 U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) -- The Air Force Academy's professors are the most accessible in the nation for the fourth year in a row, according to The Best 368 Colleges text, released July 29 by the Princeton Review. Faculty availability is an expectation at a military service academy. At the U.S. Air Force Academy, the student-faculty ratio is 8:1, average class size is 20, 100 percent of the faculty is full-time and no classes are taught by teaching assistants. Several academic departments here also staff Extra Instruction laboratories throughout the academic day, with at least one professor available each class period to help cadets tackle questions arising from their latest lessons. The Academy also came out in several other top-20 rankings in the nation, including: -- #4 Don't Inhale -- #4 Future Rotarians and Daughters of the American Revolution -- #5 Most Conservative Students -- #6 Stone-Cold Sober Schools -- #13 Everyone Plays Intramural Sports -- #17 Scotch and Soda, Hold The Scotch -- #17 Most Politically Active Students The Princeton Review features the Air Force Academy and other local colleges in The Best 368 Colleges, the new 2009 edition of its annual "best colleges" guide. Only about 15 percent of America's 2,500 four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are in the book. It has two-page profiles of the schools and student survey-based ranking lists of top 20 colleges in more than 60 categories. "We chose schools for this book primarily for their outstanding academics," said Robert Franek, Princeton Review's vice-president of publishing. "We evaluated them based on institutional data we collect about the schools, feedback from students attending them, and our visits to schools over the years. We also consider the opinions of independent college counselors, students and parents we hear from year-long. Finally, we work to have a wide representation of colleges in the book by region, size, selectivity and character." The guide utilizes online student surveys in 62 categories to assess the academic, administrative, quality of life, social, extracurricular and other aspects of life at American colleges. Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) View the comments/letters page