The University of Mississippi was the only in-state school to be featured on The Princeton Review’s annual list of best overall colleges.
Better known as Ole Miss, the Oxford university’s array of undergraduate programs and booming campus culture helped launch it onto the publication’s 2026 edition of “The Best 391 Colleges,” which was released earlier this week as 2025-26 academic calendars pick up.
The list of top colleges is not ranked, and schools are listed from A to Z. It was determined through student surveys with topics such as academics, athletics, financial aid, dorms, and food, among others, asked about.
“The colleges we profile in our ‘Best Colleges’ book are truly a select group. They constitute only about 15% of America’s nearly 2,400 four-year institutions,” The Princeton Review editor-in-chief Rob Frank stated in a news release. “While they vary by locale, type, size, and campus culture, each one offers its students an academically outstanding undergraduate education. In our opinion, they are the nation’s best undergraduate colleges and ideal choices for students seeking their ‘best-fit’ college.”
As part of its yearly college-review process, The Princeton Review also honors schools by regions: Northeast, South, Southwest, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, West, and International.
The South group – which encompasses Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina – of course included Ole Miss, but it also honored one of the state’s smaller, private schools. Millsaps College in Jackson was featured as a regional option that is “academically outstanding and well worth consideration” in prospective students’ searches.
