Eastern Kentucky University ranks in the first tier of Southern Master’s Universities in the 2010 edition of “America’s Best Colleges,” published by U.S. News & World Report.
Highlights of the rankings are published in the magazine’s September issue, available for newsstand purchase on Aug. 24. The 2010 America’s Best Colleges guidebook will be available on Aug. 25.
The annual rankings – in which U.S. News groups institutions based on geography and on mission-related categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching – assist parents and students who are contemplating one of life’s most challenging financial decisions. The Master’s Universities offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master’s programs but few, if any, doctoral programs (EKU currently offers one doctoral program). Eleven states comprise the Southern region in the magazine’s rankings.
Data is gathered from each college or university for a set of widely accepted indicators of academic excellence, and institutions in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score. The indicators fall into several categories, including peer assessment, retention, class size and faculty/student ratio, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving rate. The indicators include input measures that reflect a school’s student body, its faculty, and its financial resources, along with outcome measures that signal how well the institution does its job of educating students.
“Certainly, the college experience consists of a host of intangibles that cannot be reduced to mere numbers,” write Robert J. Morse and Samuel Flanigan in the magazine. “But for families, the U.S. News rankings provide an excellent starting point because they offer the opportunity to judge the relative quality of institutions based on widely accepted indicators of excellence. You can compare different schools’ numbers at a glance, and looking at unfamiliar schools that are ranked near schools you know can be a good way to broaden your search.
“Of course, many factors other than those we measure will figure in your decision, including the feel of campus life, activities, sports, academic offerings, location, cost, and availability of financial aid. But if you combine the information in this book with college visits, interviews, and your own intuition, our rankings can be a powerful tool in your quest for college.”
Earlier this summer, Forbes Magazine ranked EKU among “America’s Best Colleges” for the second consecutive year, essentially placing Eastern among the top 15 percent of the nation’s colleges and universities. Also this year, EKU was one of 122 four-year colleges and universities recognized by the Chronicle of Higher Education as a “Great College to Work For.”
“All these rankings, including the latest from U.S. News & World Report, confirm the high quality of EKU as an academic institution and employer,” said EKU President Doug Whitlock. “Yet the truest measure of our success remains our highly accomplished graduates worldwide who treasure their Eastern experience. I am gratified for our outstanding faculty and staff to see these affirmations of their efforts.”
