U.S. News & World Report ranks Elon among nation’s best

Elon earns top rankings for teaching, affordable price, study abroad, internships, service and more…

Elon University earns a long list of top honors in the 2013 “America’s Best Colleges” rankings by U.S. News & World Report.

In the magazine’s annual ranking released Sept. 12, U.S. News named Elon the #1 master’s-level university in the South with “an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching” as measured in a survey of college presidents, provosts and admissions deans.

In its “Up-and-Comers” ranking, U.S. News ranks Elon the #1 Southern University and among the top 46 colleges and universities in the nation “that have recently made the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus or facilities.”

In the overall Southern master’s-level universities ranking of 128 schools, Elon ranks #2 for the sixth year in a row, the top North Carolina school in the category.

Again this year, Elon leads the nation in a US News “Focus on Student Success” ranking of key programs that enrich the college experience. Elon is among the nation’s leaders in the following categories:

  • Internships
  • Study abroad
  • Senior capstone experiences
  • First-year experience
  • Learning communities
  • Service learning
  • Undergraduate research/creative projects

Elon is the only school named in seven of the eight key program categories.

Elon also earns recognition in the U.S. News “Great Schools, Great Prices” ranking, rating among the top 15 Southern universities based on a combination of academic quality and net costs for students and their families.

The 2013 “America’s Best Colleges” rankings provide the most thorough examination of how more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools compare on a set of 16 widely accepted indicators of excellence. Among the many factors weighed in determining the rankings, the key measures of quality are: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.

Elon’s top U.S. News rankings follow previous “best colleges” rankings by The Princeton Review and the Fiske Guide to Colleges, which were released in August.