Princeton review gives academy high marks Published Aug. 18, 2004 U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) -- The Air Force Academy ranks 18th in the nation in overall academic experience, according to the Princeton Review's "The Best 357 Colleges -- 2005 edition."The annual rankings hit the streets Aug. 17 and are the result of input from more than 110,000 students at 357 colleges.Students and cadets ranked their respective universities on a wide range of academic categories, including professor availability, amount of studying, toughest to get into, class discussions and whether professors "bring material to life."The colleges are also rated in many other ways, under the categories of quality of life, administration, politics, demographics, social life and extracurricular activities.The workload here, by all accounts, is tremendous, said one cadet."They purposely place 25 hours of tasks in every 24-hour day,” the cadet said. “It's tough, but if you work as a team and put forth all your effort every day, this place won't be too bad."Cadets average 15.5 semester hours during their initial academic semester, then have a minimum 18-hour semester hour course load until their final senior semester here. Academy cadets also juggle their academic workload with mandatory intramural or extramural athletics, military-training activities, and honor and character development courses. In addition, cadet squadrons are active with community service projects, and senior and junior class cadets hold leadership positions within the academy's 4,000-cadet wing."Overall, it's a good experience; we learn time management very quickly," one surveyed cadet said.