Strong showing for Nazarene schools in "America's Best Colleges" report

Global Ministry Center

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Once again, U.S. News & World Report has named several Nazarene institutions of higher education among "America's Best Colleges." The publication released their rankings for 2010 in late August.

U.S. News ranks universities and colleges in three steps.

First, according to their web site, to sort colleges and universities into appropriate categories for comparisons, this 2010 edition of "America's Best Colleges" uses the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's 2006 Basic version of its classifications. Carnegie groups American colleges and universities according to their mission as defined by factors such as the highest level of degrees conferred by discipline. The Carnegie classifications have been the basis of the Best Colleges ranking categories since the first rankings in 1983. As the accepted standard in higher education, they are used by the Department of Education and many associations to organize their data and to determine colleges' eligibility for grant money. U.S. News collapses nine of those Carnegie categories into four main groupings: National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Universities-Master's, and Baccalaureate Colleges. The schools in the Universities-Master's and Baccalaureate Colleges categories are placed into one of four geographic regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.

Second, data on up to 15 indicators of academic quality are gathered from each school and tabulated.

Finally, colleges are ranked in their category by their total weighted score.

National Universities

There are 262 national universities in the country (164 public, 98 private), based on categories developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Schools in the National Universities category, such as Yale and UCLA, offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master's, and doctoral degrees. According to U.S. News, these colleges also are committed to producing groundbreaking research.

One Nazarene school was placed in this category (click on school for U.S. News profile):

Trevecca Nazarene University (Tier 4*; Nashville, Tennessee; Dan Boone, president)


Universities-Master's

Like the national universities, Universities-Master's (as defined by the Carnegie Foundation) provide a full range of undergraduate programs and some master's level programs. They offer few, if any, doctoral programs. The 572 universities in this grouping are ranked within four geographic areas: North, South, Midwest, and West. Important note on the Universities-Master's rankings: The America's Best Colleges rankings are of the entire school focusing on the undergraduate program. The term Universities-Master's is a label to designate a type of school, not the master's programs at any of the schools.

Five Nazarene universities were placed in this category (click school for U.S. News profile):

Point Loma Nazarene University (Top Schools*, No. 22 - West; San Diego, California; Bob Brower, president)
Northwest Nazarene University (Top Schools*, No. 54 - West; Nampa, Idaho; David Alexander, president)
Southern Nazarene University (Tier 3* - West; Bethany, Oklahoma; Loren P. Gresham, president)
Olivet Nazarene University (Top Schools*, No. 67 - Midwest; Bourbonnais, Illinois; John C. Bowling, president)
(Story: Olivet again top tier as one of "America's Best Colleges")
MidAmerica Nazarene University (Tier 4*- Midwest; Olathe, Kansas; Ed Robinson, president)


Baccalaureate Colleges

These institutions focus primarily on undergraduate education, just as the liberal arts colleges do, but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. At these schools, at least 10 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded are bachelor's degrees. There are 319 baccalaureate colleges, ranked within four regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.

Two Nazarene schools were placed in this category (click school for U.S. News profile):

Mount Vernon Nazarene University (Top Schools*, No.26 - Midwest; Mount Vernon, Ohio; Daniel J. Martin, president)
(Story: MVNU again climbs national rankings)
Eastern Nazarene University (Tier 3*- North; Quincy, Massachusetts; Corlis McGee, president)

For more information, see www.usnews.com.
--Compiled by NCN News


*Key

Top Schools:
The top 50 percent of schools in this category, ranked numerically

Tier 3 Schools:
The next 25 percent of schools in this category, listed alphabetically

Tier 4 Schools:
The bottom 25 percent of schools in this category, listed alphabetically

Unranked Schools:
The schools in this category have not been ranked, listed alphabetically

 

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