Longwood continues its upward momentum in U.S. News rankings

For the third straight year, Longwood has moved up the charts in the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges guide, continuing the sharpest ascent in the regional rankings over that time of any Virginia public university.

The latest rankings, released in September, show the university overall moving up one spot to No. 8 among the best public universities in the magazine’s Southern regional universities category—and also moving up to crack the top 25 among all universities, both public and private, in that category.

New this year: Longwood debuts in the top 20 in a new category that identifies institutions in each region with the strongest commitment

in its broader overall category, Longwood is up six spots in just three years.

to professors teaching in the classroom. Longwood has the highest percentage of students taught by full-time faculty of any public university in Virginia.

While year-to-year rankings sometimes jump around, the focus generally falls on longer-term trends. Since 2014, Longwood has ascended from No. 12 to No. 8 among regional public universities in the South. In its broader overall category, Longwood is up six spots in just three years. No other Virginia public universities in that category—and in fact only a tiny handful of institutions nationally in any category—have risen so far during that time period.

This year Longwood’s overall ranking benefited from a substantial jump of eight spots in its “peer ranking”—an important part of the formula that measures how other institutions view a peer institution’s reputation.

“I’m especially pleased to see our commitment to faculty teaching in the classroom being recognized,” said Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV. “Longwood has such great momentum in so many areas—our new Civitae core curriculum, committed professors and an array of great new buildings opening on campus. We aren’t doing those things to move up in the rankings, and no ranking can fully capture a university. But it’s heartening to see, over time, more and more people noticing us.”