Meredith College Moves Up in U.S. News Rankings

Meredith College has moved up in the U.S. News rankings of Best Liberal Arts Colleges. The 2021 edition of the list, which was released on September 14, 2020, includes Meredith at #136, up from #148 the previous year.

Meredith is included in the National Liberal Arts Colleges list, which U.S. News defines as schools that “focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education and award at least 50% of their degrees in the arts and sciences.”

The publication uses 17 measures of academic quality to determine its rankings.

Among the measures used are retention and graduation rates, which have helped improve Meredith’s standings in the U.S. News rankings. In 2020,  Meredith College had a 85.4% freshman to sophomore retention rate, which is its highest retention rate since the late 1990s. This achievement comes after another strong retention rate of 81.3% in 2019. Meredith’s four-year graduation rate has been over 60% for two years in a row. Strong retention rates also led to Meredith being included on the U.S. News list of A+ Schools for B Students.

U.S. News also included Meredith College on its Social Mobility ranking, as #63 among National Liberal Arts Colleges. The College was listed at #113 the previous year. This indicator measures how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants. The social mobility ranking was computed by aggregating the two ranking factors assessing graduation rates of Pell-awarded students.

Learn more about admission to Meredith at meredith.edu/admissions.