EMU placed 181 out of 266 national liberal arts colleges in its annual “Best Colleges” issue that hits the newsstands Aug. 31.

Each college and university received a score based on 16 indicators, including peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty-student ratios and class sizes, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. The “National Liberal Arts” category, in which EMU is ranked, is defined as “schools emphasizing undergraduate education and awarding at least 50 percent of degrees in the arts and sciences.”

Within the 266 schools in the “national liberal arts” category, EMU rated high in several key areas, with an average freshman retention rate of 79 percent, well above the national average, a high percentage of full-time faculty (76 percent), a graduation rate (62 percent) that outperformed predictions by 3 percent and an alumni giving rate of 26 percent.

Dr. BJ Miller, director of institutional research and effectiveness, expressed disappointment that EMU wasn’t highlighted by the publication as a school with “A Strong Focus on Student Success,” noting: “Our cross-cultural experience is clearly a stellar example of a strong study abroad program, according to their definition, but I believe we weren’t included because we’re not as widely-known as the schools that made the list.”

A complete summary of the methodology used to rank each school can be found online at .

All 2011 rankings are available on the magazine’s Web site at .

———-

The exclusive listings will be published in the magazine’s Aug. 24 issue and available online at . The 2010 “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook will be available as of Tuesday, Aug. 25.

How the rankings work

The Carnegie Foundation defines a national liberal arts school as one emphasizing undergraduate education and awarding at least 50 percent of its degrees in the arts and sciences. There were 266 schools measured in the liberal arts category; most are private institutions; 28 are public.

A complete summary of the methodology used to rank each school can be found online at .

Each college and university received a score based on 15 indicators, including peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty-student ratios and class sizes, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.

EMU rates high in key areas

Within the 65 colleges and universities in the third tier, EMU rated high in several key areas,with an average freshman retention rate of 78 percent, well above the national average, and a high percentage of full-time faculty (88 percent).

EMU’s alumni giving rate of 27 percent ranked 11th highest among all schools listed in the third tier.

Cited for international study

In a separate listing, EMU ranked 11th out of 100 schools cited for “most students studying abroad” with 72 percent of its 2008 graduates having participated in international study abroad programs.

“Being ranked in the third tier of such an impressive list of schools is quite an accomplishment. I’m happy that we maintained our ranking in the third tier, and also that we were recognized for the high percentage of students who study abroad,” said BJ Miller, director of institutional research and effectiveness at EMU.

“However, I’m a little disappointed that we weren’t included in their list of ‘Academic Programs to Look For’ category. Our cross-cultural experience is clearly a ‘stellar example’ of a study abroad program to look for according to their definition, but it’s probably not as well known as the ones that were nominated most frequently,” she added.

The exclusive listings will be published in the magazine’s Aug. 27 issue and available online at . The 2009 “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook will be available as of Tuesday, Aug. 26.

The Carnegie Commission defines a national liberal arts school as one emphasizing undergraduate education and awarding at least 50 percent of its degrees in the arts and sciences. There were 265 schools measured in the liberal arts category; most are private institutions; 27 are public.

Ranking Methodology

A complete summary of the methodology used to rank each school can be found online at .

Each college and university received a score based on 15 indicators, including peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty-student ratios and class sizes, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.

Within the 65 colleges and universities in the third tier, EMU rated high with an average freshman retention rate of 78 percent, well above the national average, and in the percentage of full-time faculty (90 percent). EMU’s alumni giving rate of 28 percent ranked tenth highest among all schools listed in the third tier.

High Graduation Rate Key

“I feel certain that our six-year graduation rate was the primary factor in the move up the rankings,” said BJ Miller, director of institutional research and effectiveness at EMU.

“That statistic is weighted heavily in the methodology, and our rate was at 70 percent for the class that entered in 2001. Their ranking calculation also includes the difference between what they predicted our rate would be and our actual rate. We outperformed their predicted rate by seven percentage points,” Dr. Miller added.

All 2009 rankings are available on the magazine’s website at

Many of the rankings and some articles from the “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook will appear in the Aug. 30 weekly issue of “U.S. News & World Report” that will reach newstands Aug. 22. The annual guidebook will also go on sale the same day.

The Carnegie Commission defines a national liberal arts school as one emphasizing undergraduate education and awarding at least 50 percent of its degrees in the liberal arts disciplines. There were 215 schools measured in the “national liberal arts-bachelor’s” category in which EMU has been ranked; most are private institutions.

Each college and university received a score based on six indicators – peer assess ment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity and alumni giving.

Within its tier of over 50 colleges and universities, EMU ranked high with a 2005 freshman retention rate of 78 percent, well above the national average. An alumni giving rate of 33 percent is also well above the average for schools in the fourth tier.

“We’re ranked about where we expected to be,” said Shirley B. Yoder, vice president for enrollment and marketing.

“EMU made a strategic decision in 2004 to focus on under-served groups in our own community and throughout Virginia,” Yoder said. “We were highly successful in reaching that goal with 22 percent of our new traditional undergraduate students coming from under-served groups from within our country.

“Although students may find some help in comparing schools through rankings such as these, a campus visit will likely be much more important for evaluating a student’s fit with a particular school,” Yoder added.

All 2006 rankings are available on the magazine’s website at

The four will be joining 21 other international observers assembled in Florida by Pax Christi, a Catholic organization devoted to promoting the gospel imperative of peacemaking.

The election-monitoring effort is part of the Voting Justice Campaign for the U.S. Presidential election on November 2. The four counties on which it is focused are Broward, Duval, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.

“We chose Florida because of the improprieties that occurred there during the Presidential election of 2000,” says a statement posted on the organization