Mercer Rises Five Spots Among U.S. News Best Value National Universities

18497
Statue of Jesse Mercer on the Mercer campus.

MACON – Mercer University remains in the top tier of national universities and is among the top 35 best values in U.S. News & World Report’s annual America’s Best Colleges issue, released today.

Mercer improved five spots over last year’s ranking of the best values among the 389 institutions in the national universities category. The best value ranking takes into account an institution’s academic quality and the previous year’s net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid.

Mercer’s overall ranking of No. 160 among national universities ties it with nine other institutions, including Belmont, Hofstra, the University of Albany – SUNY, University of Arkansas, University of Central Florida, University of Maryland – Baltimore County, University of Mississippi, Valparaiso and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Additionally, Mercer is once again ranked in the top 50 of the magazine’s best colleges for undergraduate teaching.

The School of Engineering’s undergraduate program, consistently ranked among the nation’s top engineering programs that have bachelor’s or master’s as their terminal degrees, is tied for No. 60 based on surveys of engineering deans and senior faculty at accredited programs.

Mercer is also ranked among the best colleges for veterans (No. 114) and undergraduate business programs (No. 273).

Four years ago, due to its reclassification by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education from a regional master’s university to a national doctoral research university, Mercer was elevated to U.S. News’ national universities category following 17 years as a top 10 regional university in the South.

The institutions ranked as national universities are evaluated based upon factors such as peer assessment, freshman retention, graduation rate, class size, student-faculty ratio, academic profile of entering class, acceptance rate and alumni giving.

To view the rankings and see more information on U.S. News and World Report’s ranking methodology, visit usnews.com/colleges.