One of DePaul University’s bedrock institutional commitments – its effort to create a welcoming, diverse atmosphere on campus – just received the ultimate compliment.

The Princeton Review, in its annual survey of the best colleges and universities in the United States, ranked DePaul No. 1 in the nation in the “Diverse Student Population” category. The ranking was the result of a survey of more than 115,000 college students nationwide at 361 top schools. It is featured in the 2007 edition of the Princeton Review’s annual college guide, “The Best 361 Colleges,” which is being released this week.

“DePaul University looks like the city of Chicago, and we’re proud of that,” said the Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., DePaul’s president. “We are honored that the Princeton Review has recognized DePaul’s long-standing commitment to creating a pluralistic educational environment in which people of many races and religions can learn from each other.”

According to the profile of DePaul in the guide, students raved about the “very diverse campus.” The guide states that: “undergraduates tell us that ‘everyone gets along with each other remarkably. There are open gay/lesbians, African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, and people of all different races who all accept each other for who they are.’” The guide also cited DePaul’s strategic partnerships with Latino organizations.

This is the second time this summer that DePaul has been lauded for its diversity. In July, the university once again was prominent in the 2006 Diverse Issues in Higher Education rankings of the 100 top minority degree-producing institutions. DePaul was ranked in 28 different categories, scoring among the nation’s top 25 in nine of them. The university scored highest in the graduate rankings for computer and information sciences degrees. DePaul’s School of Computer Science, Telecommunications, and Information Systems ranked in the top six in the nation in four different categories, including the number of total minority master’s degree recipients (No. 3), total Asian master’s degree recipients (No. 3), total Hispanic/Latino master’s degree recipients (No. 3) and total African American master’s degree recipients (No. 6).

“DePaul draws upon the rich diversity of our urban environment to provide our students the skills and experiences to learn, live and work in a multicultural world,” said Elizabeth F. Ortiz, senior executive for institutional diversity at DePaul. “We are pleased by this ranking, and we will continue to build upon our diversity goals and expectations, as well as strengthen and improve upon our diversity profile.”

For the 2005-2006 academic year, 32 percent of DePaul’s undergraduates were minority students, and nearly 30 percent of freshmen were first-generation college students, from households where neither parent has a college degree.

“DePaul’s comprehensive enrollment strategy reflects a commitment to student diversity that is distinctive among national private universities,” said David Kalsbeek, vice president for Enrollment Management. “DePaul has earned a reputation for its success in this regard.”

DePaul is no stranger to the Princeton Review rankings. This is the fourth year in a row that DePaul’s diversity has been ranked in the nation’s top 20 according to their surveys, and the university topped the “Happiest Students” category in both 1999 and 2003. In addition, DePaul was ranked No. 5 in this year’s rankings of “Great College Towns,” also making the top 20 for the fourth consecutive year.

With an enrollment of 23,148 students on two city and four suburban campuses, DePaul is the largest Catholic university in the nation and the country’s 10th-largest private, not-for-profit university. DePaul is an innovative and diverse university offering pragmatic educational programs that instill values, including a commitment to community service.