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 stretch of any Virginia public university.
The latest rankings, released Sept. 10, 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 rankings category from the magazine that identifies institutions in each region with the strongest commitment to professors teaching in the classroom.
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.
Longwood President W. Taylor Reveley IV Tweet This
While year-to-year rankings can sometimes jump around, most metrics in the formula change only gradually over the time, so 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.
Here are some other facts about Longwood’s spot in this year’s rankings:
- This year Longwood’s overall ranking benefitted from a substantial jump of eight spots in its “peer ranking” – an important part of the formula that surveys how other institutions view the university’s reputation. Longwood also saw improvements in its rankings relative to other institutions in such categories as financial resources and faculty resources.
- Longwood is ranked in the top 20 regionally in a new measure of universities with the strongest commitment to professors teaching in the classroom. Longwood has the highest percentage of students taught by full-time faculty of any public university in Virginia.
- A new methodology adopted by U.S. News & World Report puts more emphasis on graduation rates—a top priority for Longwood in its strategic vision—and less emphasis on metrics like acceptance rate, which some colleges have worked to artificially inflate. Longwood’s work to improve graduation rates and student success services housed in the new Brock Hall are among its top priorities.
This fall, Longwood students will benefit from not only the new Upchurch University Center, which will open October 26, but also Brock Hall, a building dedicated to housing student success services like the Center for Academic Success, Writing Center, and plenty of quiet study, work and meeting space.
“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.”
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