Hampton Among Top HBCUs In U.S. News & World Report
 

     Washington, D.C.—Spelman College, Howard University, and Hampton University, top the list of U.S.News & World Report’s first annual ranking of the nation’s historically black colleges and universities.  The “America’s Best Black Colleges” rankings were released Friday (Sept. 28 and appear in the magazine issue dated October 8.
     The 2008 edition of “America’s Best Black Colleges” marks the first time U.S.News & World Report has released a stand-alone ranking of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as defined by the U.S. Department of Education. 
     

     “As historically black colleges and universities continue to play a vital role in today’s higher education landscape, we decided to create a specific ranking of them to allow apples-to-apples comparisons of these schools,” said Brian Kelly, editor of U.S.News & World Report.  “This unique ranking offers for the first time an independent perspective on these institutions to help students and parents make an informed choice about one of life’s most important and expensive decisions.”
The ranking table lists numerically the schools in the top half of the 70 eligible to be ranked—37 schools are listed, as four tied for 34th place.  Those falling into the second half are listed alphabetically.
      The schools are ranked using key industry standards for measuring higher education quality: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving rates.  Earlier this year, U.S. News conducted its first-ever peer survey among only the HBCUs, asking head administrators to rate the scholarship and quality of all other black colleges they were familiar with. 

Read HBCU Rankings