Hanover College among the top according to U.S. News & World Report
Hanover College has been ranked among the best national liberal arts colleges in the U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Colleges guide. The magazine’s rankings place Hanover firmly among its top U.S. institutions for overall undergraduate education, value and social mobility.
U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges provides data-driven information and guidance to help prospective students and families understand their higher education options. The publication assesses 1,452 U.S. bachelor’s degree-granting institutions through comparisons such as application requirements, tuition and financial aid policies, student body demographics, campus life, student-faculty ratio and average federal loan debt of graduates.
U.S News & World Report Best Colleges divides U.S. colleges and universities in four categories, including national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional universities and regional colleges. Hanover is included among national liberal arts colleges because it focuses almost exclusively on undergraduate education and awards at least 50 percent of its degrees in the arts and sciences.
Hanover College placed 35th for best value of ranked national liberal arts institutions. Hanover also was ranked 80th for social mobility and 98th overall.
Hanover’s overall rank is based on its performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence. These include in-depth assessments of the College’s admission requirements and selectivity, cost and financial aid, academic and student life, retention, faculty resources, athletics, campus safety and more.
U.S. News Best Colleges measures value by combining overall ranking with the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of need-based financial aid. The best value rankings blend a ratio of quality-to-price, percentage of all full-time undergraduates receiving need-based scholarships or grants, percent of need-based aid recipients awarded scholarship or grants, and the school’s discount rate (total annual costs covered by the average need-based scholarship or grant award for full-time undergraduates).
The publication’s social mobility rankings examine which schools best provide financial assistance to economically disadvantaged students. Hanover’s current student body includes a high percentage of students who are eligible for Pell Grants, which support students with exceptional financial need. Last month, the College extended its “Pell Promise” to meet full tuition needs for Pell-eligible students from all 50 states beginning with the incoming first-year class of 2022.
U.S News & World Report Best Colleges uses the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Carnegie Classification has been the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education since 1970. Considered the accepted standard in U.S. higher education, the Carnegie Classification has been used by U.S. News since the first “Best Colleges” rankings was published in 1983.
The online version of U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Colleges will be released this month. The printed “Best Colleges 2022” guidebook will ship in October and be available in bookstores Nov. 2.
