|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 13, 2002
BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-For the ninth straight
year, Birmingham-Southern College is one of America's top liberal
arts colleges in the annual "U.S. News & World Report"
rankings.
The 2003 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 magazine also ranked Birmingham-Southern
high in several other categories. Among all institutions of higher
learning, the college ranked No. 28 in percentage of students who
study abroad. Among other national liberal arts colleges, Birmingham-Southern
ranked No. 42 for its high graduation rate of 79 percent and No.
27 for graduates who leave college with the least amount of debt.
The magazine also recognized Birmingham-Southern for its campus
diversity.
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.
"U.S. News" 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.
The magazine ranks the colleges within each
category based on a number of indicators in the areas of peer assessment
of academic reputation, retention and graduation of students, faculty
resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving,
and graduation rate performance.
Birmingham-Southern is a four-year, private
liberal arts college founded in 1856 and affiliated with the United
Methodist Church.
|