Walla Walla College (WWC) ranks in the top tier of colleges and universities included in U.S. News and World Report's 2005 edition of "America's Best Colleges."
The publication ranks WWC 34th out the 63 colleges and universities who are also considered top-category schools in the western United States. WWC is included in the 17-state western region in the category of "Best Universities—Master's."
"We're pleased to see Walla Walla College in the top category of western master's-level universities," says Ginger Ketting-Weller, WWC acting president. "While this report is just one of many ways to assess our performance, it is affirming news about the good things happening at our school."
Nationwide, the guide ranks 572 universities in the "Best Universities—Master's" category. WWC was compared with 124 other universities in the western region.
"One of the strong factors brought out in our top-category ranking was our 13-to-one student teacher ratio, providing an environment in which students are more likely to personally connect with their teachers—a strong, positive factor in research on student success. Another notable point in our data is that we had the highest average alumni giving rate of all the universities in our category," says Ketting-Weller. An average of 27 percent of WWC graduates give to their alma mater.
In addition to alumni giving, other factors taken into consideration are acceptance rate, freshman retention and graduation rate, class sizes, student/faculty ratio, percentage of full-time faculty, and peer assessment.
Complete ranking information is available at www.usnews.com.
