Four N.C. Baptist colleges have been listed in the 2009 rankings of America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News and World Report.
U.S. News and World Report, which began ranking America’s best colleges in 1983, bases its college ratings on data provided by the institutions and by a survey of administrators at peer colleges and universities. Institutions are grouped into four categories according to a system developed by the Carnegie Fund for the Advancement of Teaching.
The two larger categories, Universities-Master’s and Baccalaureate Colleges, are each divided into four divisions, North, South, Midwest and West.
Two N.C. Baptist schools — Mars Hill College and Chowan University — were ranked in the Baccalaureate Colleges category. Colleges in this category focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than half of their degrees in the liberal arts disciplines.
The 574 institutions listed in the “Universities-Master’s” category primarily award bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Campbell University and Gardner-Webb University were both listed among the top-tier schools in the Universities-Master’s-South rankings.
Thirty-eight other member institutions of the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities were listed in the rankings by U.S. News and World Report or a list put together by Forbes.com.
Forbes.com introduced its first ranking of America’s Best Colleges in 2008. In conjunction with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity at Ohio University, Forbes ranked 569 undergraduate colleges and universities, primarily institutions from the top tiers of the U.S. News list of best colleges.
Forbes based its rankings on the quality of the education provided by the institutions, and how much their students have achieved. Forbes describes its college rating system as an alternative to the popular U.S. News & World Report rating on America’s best colleges.
No N.C. Baptist schools were on the Forbes list.