MACON – Mercer University is again ranked in the top tier of national universities in U.S. News & World Report’s annual America’s Best Colleges issue, released today. The magazine also ranked Mercer the No. 35 best value among the more than 300 institutions in the national universities category.
Two years ago, due to its reclassification from a regional master’s university to a national doctoral research university, Mercer was elevated to the magazine’s national universities category following 17 years as a top 10 regional university in the South.
Emory University (No. 21), Georgia Institute of Technology (No. 35), the University of Georgia (No. 46) and Georgia State University (No. 187) are the only other institutions in the state to be ranked in the publication’s top tier of national universities. Mercer is tied with six other universities for No. 140 in the ranking.
Mercer and Emory are the only Georgia institutions among the top 50 best value schools.
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.
The best value rankings take 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. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.
Mercer School of Engineering’s undergraduate program, which is consistently ranked among the nation’s top engineering programs that have bachelor’s or master’s as their terminal degrees, is tied for No. 30 – up eight spots from 2017 – based on surveys of engineering deans and senior faculty at accredited programs.
To view the rankings and see more information on U.S. News and World Report’s ranking methodology, visit usnews.com/colleges.
