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MILLIGAN COLLEGE, TN (August 18, 2006) — In U.S. News & World Report’s 2007 edition of America’s Best Colleges, released this morning, Milligan College is ranked in the top tier of the South region in the “Best Universities-Master’s” category. This category includes 557 colleges who provide a full range of undergraduate and master’s programs and is divided geographically into North, South, Midwest and West. Milligan is ranked 44 out of 127 colleges in the South region.
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, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.
Milligan’s alumni giving rate – the average percentage of alumni who gave to their alma mater during the previous two years – of 33 percent is one of the highest in the entire “Best Universities-Master’s” category in all regions.
“Our alumni are incredibly supportive and recognize the unique mission of our institution,” 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 U.S. News categories are based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education released 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. 28 edition of U.S. News & World Report, which hits newsstands on Monday, Aug. 21. The rankings are also available, beginning Aug. 18, at www.usnews.com.