News
Roberts Ranks in the Top 15% Best Value College and Gains in Two Rankings for the U.S. News and World Report Best Colleges Rankings
College Selection Decision Metrics: Graduation, Retention and Social Mobility
Roberts Wesleyan College again ranks among the best universities in multiple categories in the newly released rankings on Sept. 12. These rankings help prospective students and their families make decisions about where to go to college. The metrics focus on graduation rates, retention rates and social mobility indicators.
Roberts earned multiple spots on the 2022 Best Colleges U.S. News and World Report because of its high rankings. As high school students are scheduling college visits, the lists for value and financial aid rankings are an informative resource for navigating the search for choosing the right school for them. Here are the 2022 rankings out of a total of 171 regional universities in this ranking category:
- Best Value - Regional Universities North #26: for best value rankings, Roberts is in the top 15% or ranked above 85% of others in this category
- Regional Universities North #78: Roberts Wesleyan College overall is in the top half
- Social Mobility - Regional Universities North #39: in the top 25%
The Best Value ranking reflects our strong commitment to student success outcomes, graduation, meeting goals and affordability.
Choosing a college is a momentous decision and the college search process can generate many questions. "Where can I best invest my time and resources to prepare me for my future?" How can we make sense of the financial aid pieces? Can we afford college? Families and students want to be assured that when they get to the graduation stage and beyond, this investment will have been worthwhile. These questions around value, graduation and retention rates matter.
The College improved four spots in the Best Value Best Value among regional universities from 30 (in 2021) to 26 (for 2022). The Best Value ranking is based on the following four indicators:
- Ratio of quality to price: Academic quality relative to the average undergraduates receiving need-based grants – this indicator has the most weight at 50%.
- Need-based aid: The percentage of all full-time undergraduates receiving need-based scholarships or grants.
- Percent of need-based recipients awarded scholarships or grants.
- Average discount: This is a percentage of a school’s 2020-2021 total sticker cost. The higher the discount percentage, the better the school’s score. Roberts Wesleyan College’s average discount from total costs was 45%.
Roberts moved up from 83 to 78 in the Regional Universities North, improving five spots from last year’s rankings. Factors for this ranking include an 81% first-year retention rate, 85% of classes with 20 or less students, and an 11 to 1 student to faculty ratio.
Roberts Wesleyan College ranked 39th among 171 (north) regional universities evaluated by US News in this Social Mobility category. Social mobility measures the extent that institutions enrolled students who were awarded federal Pell Grants, and the school’s graduation rate for Pell grant recipients. These students typically come from families who make less than $50,000 annually, although most of the Pell Grant money goes to students whose family income is less than $20,000 annually.
For the U.S. News and World Report 2022 Best College rankings, Roberts was also an A + School for B Students with an overall first year retention rate average of 81%, an acceptance rate of 76%, top 10% of high school class at 24% and top 25% of high school class at 54%.
To be eligible for inclusion, colleges and universities had to report sufficient financial data to U.S. News. View US News 2022 Rankings and the overview of Roberts Wesleyan College Best Colleges 2022.