BUIES CREEK — U.S. News & World Report ranked Campbell University among the best regional universities in the South in its 2014 edition of Best Colleges.
In the new edition released Tuesday, U.S. News ranked 621 regional universities that offer a full range of bachelor’s and master’s programs, as well as a few doctoral programs, against their peer groups in four geographic regions—North, South, Midwest and West. In the South region, Campbell tied with Mississippi College to rank 27 out of 92 institutions on the list of top-tier universities in the South. That’s an improvement from last year, when Campbell was ranked No. 28.
Among the 12 North Carolina institutions on the 2014 regional list, Campbell was fifth.
The rankings are based on factors such as financial resources, graduation rate performance, alumni giving rate, student selectivity, student retention, faculty resources and undergraduate academic reputation.
In comparison with its peers, Campbell ranked especially well in average freshman retention rate (73 percent), the percentages of classes with fewer than 20 students (62 percent), freshmen in the top 25 percent of their high school graduating class (56 percent), and the average alumni giving rate (13 percent).