Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, the private college on a 75-acre campus in Needham, earned the top spot in the country for its professors in The Princeton Review's 2027 Best Colleges guide, released Aug. 18.

The No. 1 finish in the "Professors Get High Marks" category places the 402-student engineering school ahead of every other college in the nation, based entirely on what students themselves reported. The Princeton Review surveyed 172,000 students at 392 colleges, with respondents answering 98 questions about academics, administration, campus life and their own experiences, according to Patch.

Olin was one of 25 Massachusetts schools included in the guide, alongside MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Boston University, Northeastern, Wellesley and Brandeis. Its category win was the highest-profile among those Bay State institutions. Bentley University in Waltham also claimed a national No. 1, topping the "Best Career Services" list.

"The colleges that make our ranking lists in the book do so entirely as a result of their own students' opinions of them," Princeton Review Editor-in-Chief Rob Franek said. "We don't rank the schools on a single hierarchical list, nor have we ever crowned one college 'best' overall."

The guide's 50 ranking categories each name 25 schools. The 392 featured colleges represent about 14 percent of the roughly 2,800 four-year colleges in the United States. The Princeton Review is not affiliated with Princeton University. The Best 392 Colleges: 2027 Edition, published by Penguin Random House, marks the guide's 35th year.

Olin's structure is unusual even among elite engineering programs. The college has no academic departments. It does not offer tenure. All 61 faculty members hold five-year renewable contracts, and students begin hands-on, project-based engineering work in their first semester. The student-faculty ratio is 9-to-1, according to the college.

The recognition adds to a strong year for Olin. In June, Business Insider ranked the college No. 10 among U.S. schools with the highest-paid graduates. Olin reports that 88 percent of alumni say they love their job, with an average starting salary of $120,000.