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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (Aug. 19, 2005) — In U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, released this morning, Milligan College is ranked among the “Best Universities-Master’s” in the South.
Each year U.S. News looks at 15 indicators of academic excellence for colleges and universities across the United States . These indicators include input measures that reflect a school’s student body, its faculty, and its financial resources, and outcome measures that signal how well the institution does its job of educating students. Indicators include peer assessment, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, and graduation rate performance.
One of the output indicators is alumni giving percentage, or in other words, the average percentage of alumni who gave to their school during the previous two years. Milligan consistently rates among the highest in its category and region for this indicator.
“Milligan alumni are a close-knit and supportive community,” said Milligan president Donald R. Jeanes. “They see the value of a Milligan education and want to make that opportunity possible for others.”
Jeanes said that the greatest value of the U.S. News rankings is in the wealth of statistics and data that accompany them.
“We encourage students to look carefully at indicators of academic quality, as well as finding a good fit with an institution’s mission and campus community. The statistics are telling, but a college’s special qualities are far more than what are represented in numbers and percentages,” he said.
The “Best Universities-Master’s” category, as defined by the Carnegie Foundation, is a group of 572 colleges and universities that provide a full range of undergraduate and master’s programs. The category is ranked within four geographic areas: North, South, Midwest and West, because they tend to draw students heavily from surrounding states.
The U.S. News categories are based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education released in late 2000 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Carnegie’s is the most widely accepted system for classifying American colleges and universities. It is used by governments and foundations when making funding decisions and is favored by researchers who study trends in higher education.
The college guide issue is scheduled for the Aug. 29 edition of U.S. News & World Report, which hits newsstands on Monday, Aug. 22. The rankings are also available, beginning Aug. 19, at www.usnews.com.