Brescia University and Kentucky Wesleyan College were named part of the Best Regional Colleges in the South by the U.S. News & World Report.
KWC is ranked #22, while Brescia University sits at #44. The list seeks to help domestic and international students compare the academic quality of U.S.-based schools.
With this ranking, KWC is the highest-ranked Kentucky school on the list.
The 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings are calculated using key measures of academic quality for National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, and Regional Colleges. Each school’s ranking factors were calculated and compared with other schools’ mean and standard deviation values to create a normalized score.
The schools also appeared on the Top Performers on Social Mobility — which focuses on a school’s graduation rate of students who received the Pell Grants. KWC ranked #33, while Brescia ranked #81 in the South division.
“The improvement of the college’s ranking is a direct result of the hard work and dedication of every member of the Kentucky Wesleyan community,” President of KWC Dr. Thomas Mitzel said. “I am humbled to work with such a dedicated Panther family on campus and in the broader Owensboro region. We are not just an institution of higher learning but a family of teachers/mentors/learners and devoted support groups, all working together to ensure we give our students tools to be the best possible servant leaders of the coming generations. To be recognized for our efforts is rewarding.”
U.S. News evaluated nearly 1,900 U.S. four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on as many as 19 measures for its 39th rankings edition. These statistics only pertain to measures reflecting academic quality and graduate outcomes – factors universally crucial to prospective students.
Also important are considerations that vary from person to person, like campus culture, strength in specific majors, and financial aid offered. U.S. News supplements its overall rankings with specialized subject and cost-oriented rankings, search tools, and a detailed school directory to account for this.
To see the complete list, click here.
