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BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-For the eighth straight year,
Birmingham-Southern College is one of America's top liberal arts
colleges in the annual "U.S. News & World Report"
rankings released on the magazine's Web site today.
The 2002 edition of the magazine's "America's
Best Colleges" publication again includes Birmingham-Southern
in Tier II of the Liberal Arts Colleges-Bachelor's category, the
top category a liberal arts institution can attain.
The college also was recognized in the publication
for its campus diversity and percentage of students in Greek organizations.
Birmingham-Southern was recognized by "U.S.
News & World Report" as the No. 1 Regional Liberal Arts
College in the South Region in 1987, the third year the rankings
were published. The following year, the college's classification
used to compile the rankings was upgraded from Regional Liberal
Arts College to Liberal Arts College-Bachelor's. Since then, the
college's ranking has improved from Tier IV of this category to
its current Tier II ranking, which initially was achieved in 1995.
Colleges in the Liberal Arts Colleges-Bachelor's
category emphasize undergraduate education and award at least 50
percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.
According to the 2002 edition of "America's
Best Colleges," the weekly news magazine builds upon a classification
system maintained by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching to group schools by missions as National Universities-Doctoral,
Liberal Arts Colleges-Bachelor's, Universities-Master's, and Comprehensive
Colleges-Bachelor's.
Colleges are ranked within each category based
on a number of indicators in the areas of academic reputation, retention
and graduation of students, faculty resources, student selectivity,
financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rate performance.
The complete 2002 "U.S. News" rankings
are available online at http://www.usnews.com. The printed version
of the special annual rankings publication hits newsstands Monday,
Sept. 10.
"While we are proud of our continued high
ranking by 'U.S. News,' we are equally proud of the many other national
recognitions the college receives for its academic programs, community
involvement, technology use, student engagement, worship opportunities,
and other efforts," said Birmingham-Southern president Dr.
Neal R. Berte.
Birmingham-Southern, a four-year, private liberal
arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church, also is
recognized nationally as one of 100 Best Values in Private Colleges
by "Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine," as one of
the 100 schools nationwide on The John Templeton Foundation's Honor
Roll of Character-Building Colleges, and as one of America's 100
Most Wired Colleges and Universities by "Yahoo! Internet Life"
magazine..
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