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September 20, 2011

Roberts Rises in U.S. News's Top Regional Universities Ranking

Gain of 12 Places Over Previous Year Places College in Very Good Company Within Higher Education

 ROCHESTER, N.Y. – This year’s U.S. News & World Report ranking of the nation’s best colleges places Roberts Wesleyan College solidly among the top universities in the Northern region of the country – an impressive 12 positions higher than last year at 60th out of nearly 200 schools, the College announced today. 

The Northern region encompasses all the states from Pennsylvania and Maryland north to Maine, and includes such schools as Villanova University and, locally, Rochester Institute of Technology.  Results from this 28th annual ranking were published in this week’s edition of the magazine and also are available online at:  www.usnews.com/education.

“Roberts Wesleyan College is pleased to receive this recognition of the quality of its educational programs,” said Dr. Robert Zwier, provost of the College.  “The College offers a transformative educational experience in the Christian tradition for undergraduate and adult students, and we are committed to continuous quality improvement.  It is an honor to be recognized for the quality of our programs.”

Roberts Wesleyan College is also recognized among the U.S. News Best Grad School rankings for nursing.  “Roberts Wesleyan College has a long tradition of excellence in nursing education at the undergraduate level,” said Zwier.  “Building on this strong foundation, the Division of Nursing has recently added graduate programs in nursing education and nursing administration.  The College is very proud that the quality of our programs has been recognized in this significant way.”

Even though it has “College” in its name, Roberts was included in the “Regional Universities” category against schools like Villanova and R.I.T.  U.S. News defines regional universities as institutions that offer an array of undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and few or no doctoral programs.  “Regional Colleges” are defined as centers of undergraduate education with fewer than 50 percent of their degrees awarded in the liberal arts.

U.S. News relies on the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which revised its highly respected Basic Classification in 2010.  The Basic Classification is the traditional framework Carnegie uses to classify colleges, and has been used by the magazine since its first ranking was published in 1983.  It is used extensively by higher education researchers.  The U.S. Department of Education and many higher education associations, for example, use this classification system to organize their data and as the basis for research studies.

After 28 years of ranking colleges, U.S. News continues to make additions beyond the data, to provide students and parents the tools to find a school that best meets their needs.  Given the explosion of social media on the American higher educational landscape, U.S. News now provides links to many schools’ Facebook and Twitter pages.  Also, a new Facebook tool on college directory pages found on www.usnews.com lets readers see which of their friends attended, or are attending, a particular school.

 

About Roberts Wesleyan College

With an enrollment of nearly 2,000 students and a tradition of excellence since 1866, Roberts Wesleyan College is a leader among liberal arts colleges with a Christian worldview.  The College offers more than 50 undergraduate programs, as well as graduate programs in education, school psychology, school counseling, health administration, health information administration, nursing education, nursing leadership and administration, social work, music education, strategic marketing, and strategic leadership.  Roberts Wesleyan also offers innovative undergraduate degree-completion programs for working adults in health administration, nursing, organizational management, and teacher education. 


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