HPU Soars to #6 in U.S. News and World Report Ranking |
HIGH POINT, N.C., Aug. 17, 2007 - High Point University has earned the #6 spot among Baccalaureate Colleges in the South in the 2008 edition of "America's Best Colleges" by U.S. News & World Report, the nation's leading source of service journalism and news. The exclusive rankings - which this year feature some substantial changes in methodology – will be published in the magazine's August 27 issue, on newsstands Monday, August 20, and available online at www.usnews.com/colleges beginning today. "Going from the #15 spot to #6 is unprecedented and adds to our national standing," said High Point University president, Dr. Nido Qubein. "This ranking is indicative of the forward momentum that High Point University has seen over the past two years. Our university is moving onwards and upwards to new standards of excellence." High Point University is the only North Carolina school ranked in the top 10 among southern colleges and universities. The rankings are based on several broad indicators designed to measure academic quality: student selectivity, student retention, faculty resources, financial resources, alumni giving, and peer evaluations. High Point University showed significant improvement in five of these areas relative to last year. "A nine-spot jump in US News rankings is practically unheard of these days because the formulas used to calculate the ranks reward 'slow-moving' indicators like student retention and graduation rates," said Dr. Jeff Adams, Director of Institutional Research and Assessment at HPU. According to Adams, steady improvements in these slow-moving indicators contributed much to the dramatic rise in this year's rankings, but one factor in particular stood out among the rest. "One heavily-weighted component of the ranking formula is something called the peer assessment score, which is essentially how leaders at other institutions rate the academic reputations of their competitors," Adams said. "This year our peer assessment score rose by a significant amount, which tells me that college presidents and deans and other administrators in colleges and universities throughout the south have taken notice of High Point University, and they like what they see." Summaries of the rankings were published in America's Best Colleges, a publication of U.S. News and World Report, and on the Web (www.usnews.com). # # # About High Point University |
