For the third year in a row, U.S. News and World Report has identified Biola University as one of the nation’s most promising and innovative schools, listing Biola as one of America’s 19 “up and coming” national universities in its annual college rankings, released Sept. 12. Biola is also ranked once again in the top tier of the “Best National Universities” category.

“Receiving this ‘up and coming’ distinction for the third straight year is a deep honor. I trust it speaks not only to the innovation and improvement that marks Biola University currently, but to how we are strategically poised to achieve our boldest aspirations to impact the world for Christ in the decades to come,” said President Barry H. Corey. “Our recently launched Open Biola online platform is the latest example of marked progress toward this end. We are humbly grateful to again be recognized by our peers.”

As one of the nation’s 19 “up and coming” universities, Biola was identified by peer schools as one of the universities “making the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, student life, campus or facilities,” according to U.S. News.

Appearing alongside such schools as University of Southern California, Clemson University and Tulane University, Biola is the only Christian school to appear on the list for the past three years in a row. U.S. News released the list for the first time in 2008 to identify schools that have recently made striking improvements or innovations.

The U.S. News rankings, released each fall, are considered the most notable of the annual published college rankings. For more than 20 years, Biola has been included on U.S. News’ list of national universities, which consists of 281 institutions that “offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees,” according to U.S. News. This year, Biola is the highest-ranked national university in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) at No. 174 overall, and one of two CCCU schools in the first tier.

To calculate the annual rankings, U.S. News uses quantitative data that assesses universities’ performance in everything from graduation and retention rates to faculty resources, measuring up to 15 indicators of academic performance. This quantitative data results in 77.5 percent of the overall score; the remaining 22.5 percent is based on undergraduate academic reputation surveys completed by university presidents, provosts and chief enrollment officers.

The U.S. News rankings are the latest in a series of national recognitions for the university. In August, The Chronicle of Higher Education named Biola one of the nation's 103 "Best Colleges to Work For," a distinction given as a result of employee surveys. Biola's high marks made it one of 42 colleges in the nation to make the “Honor Roll.” Earlier this month, The Chronicle announced Biola as 10th on the list of the nation’s fastest-growing private research universities from 2000 to 2010.

U.S. News’ “Best Colleges 2013” guidebook will be in stores Sept. 18 and is available online.

 

Written by Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Coordinator. For more information, contact Jenna at jenna.l.bartlo@biola.edu or 562.777.4061.