News and Events

ENC Ranked in Top Tier for U.S. News’ Best Regional Colleges of 2011

Published: August 19, 2010

ENC was recently ranked in the top tier of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Regional Colleges (North)” category for the magazine’s nationwide report of the “Best Colleges of 2011.”

The college ranked 31st overall among the Tier 1 colleges in the North region. Among these top-tier regional colleges, ENC ranked 2nd in “Highest Proportion of Classes under 20 (Students),” 8th in campus “Ethnic Diversity,” 11th in “Amount of Need-Based Aid Awarded” and 23rd in “Economic Diversity.”

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education classifies institutions as “Regional Colleges” based on a primary focus on undergraduate studies, a wide range of liberal arts offerings and the number of graduate degrees offered.

“Since its founding over a century ago, ENC has never wavered in its commitment to provide a high-quality liberal arts undergraduate education, where students enjoy unprecedented access to top-notch faculty within a spiritually enriching environment,” said Dr. Timothy T. Wooster, provost and dean of ENC. “While rankings in general provide a snapshot of an institution at a given point in time, it’s very gratifying for Eastern Nazarene College to be recognized among the top tier of regional colleges in the north.”

To determine its rankings, U.S. News & World Report takes into consideration a variety of factors, including peer assessment, average freshman retention rate, average graduation rate, and the percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students and more than 50 students. Other factors considered include a college’s student/faculty ratio, percentage of full-time faculty, student SAT scores, the number of freshmen who graduated in the top 25 percent of their high school class, acceptance rate and average alumni giving rate.

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