PROVIDENCE – Six local schools have made test-prep provider Princeton Review Inc.’s list of the 371 best colleges in the U.S. for 2010, released yesterday.

In Rhode Island, four schools made the list: Brown University, Bryant University, Providence College and the University of Rhode Island. Two schools in Bristol County, Mass., also made the list: Stonehill College in Easton and Wheaton College in Norton.

The rankings were based on an 80-question survey of 122,000 undergraduates conducted by Framingham, Mass.-based Princeton Review. (It is not affiliated with Princeton University.) About 325 students are surveyed at each of the schools. The new edition of the book based on its findings, “The Best 371 Colleges,” goes on sale today.

“Each of our 371 ‘best’ colleges offers great academics,” Robert Franek, the book’s author and Princeton Review’s vice president and publisher, said in a statement.

“However, we don’t rank schools academically because our goal is to help students find and get into the best school for them,” he said. “Instead, we tally 62 ranking lists based on how students at these schools rated their campus experiences, plus ratings based on institutional data we collect on issues important to applicants. It’s all about the fit.”

Two of the local schools found themselves on the top and bottom, respectively, of one of the 62 individual category lists.

Brown came in first for having the most happy students on any of the campuses, while PC was ranked as the school with the least diverse student body. (The nation’s other Wheaton College – a Christian school in Illinois – was ranked as the least accepting of alternative lifestyles among the campuses ranked.)

Penn State University in University Park, Pa., ranked as the country’s top party school. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., ranked as the school where students study the most.

“The Best 371 Colleges” has been published annually since 1992. It is one of 165 guides to schools produced by Princeton Review.

Additional information is available at PrincetonReview.com.