Forbes.com names Huntington one of ‘America’s Best’

Huntington, Ind.-For the second time, Forbes.com has named Huntington University one of America's Best Colleges.

At No. 97 on the overall list, Huntington was fifth among Indiana public and private colleges and universities and the second highest-ranked member of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. In addition, Huntington ranked No. 86 on Forbes.com's list of America's Best Private Colleges.

"We are honored that Forbes has chosen to list Huntington University among the top 100 institutions in the country for the second consecutive year," said Dr. G. Blair Dowden, president of Huntington University. "We are grateful for Forbes' acknowledgement of Huntington's outstanding faculty, individual student achievements, and the global impact of our alumni. We understand that college rankings are subject to some controversy and debate; however, we feel privileged to be recognized by a highly-respected company such as Forbes."

This is Forbes.com's second ranking of America's Best Colleges. Dr. Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University, and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, compiled the data for the rankings. According to the U.S. Department of Education, there are more than 4,000 college campuses in the United States. Forbes.com ranked only the top 15 percent or so of all undergraduate institutions "based on the quality of the education they provide and how much their students achieve."

The staff at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25 percent of the rankings on 4 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25 percent is based on post-graduate success, equally determined by enrollment-adjusted entries in Who's Who in America, and by a new metric, the average salaries of graduates reported by Payscale.com. An additional 20 percent is based on the estimated average student debt after four years. One-sixth of the rankings are based on four-year college graduation rates-half of that is the actual graduation rate, the other half the gap between the average rate and a predicted rate based on characteristics of the school. The last component is based on the number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won nationally competitive awards such as Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.

Data collected by Forbes is corroborated by data from the Student Satisfaction Inventory and the National Survey of Student Engagement. Data from the SSI, for example, shows that students rank Huntington University above the mean on a large battery of questions ranging from classroom instruction to campus safety.

On its 2009 list, U.S.News & World Report ranked Huntington as seventh among the Best Baccalaureate Colleges in the Midwest region and as No. 5 in the Best Values category for Baccalaureate Colleges in the Midwest. Recently, the Princeton Review named Huntington as one of the best colleges in the Midwest for the second consecutive year.

Indiana Colleges and Universities in Forbes.com's Top 100