Released to the public Thursday, Aug. 20 on USNews.com, the rankings are scheduled to be published in the September issue of the magazine and in the annual America’s Best Colleges guidebook, both of which will be available at newsstands and book stores on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

This year’s “Best Liberal Arts College’s” list includes information on 266 colleges and universities that U.S. News and World Report considers liberal arts colleges. Gustavus is one of six Minnesota colleges that placed in the top 100 in this year’s rankings.

“Gustavus continues to be recognized as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country and that’s something to be proud of,” President Jack R. Ohle said. “Faculty, students, and staff should be especially proud because they are the people who make this place what it is – an institution recognized for academic excellence that prepares
undergraduate students for lives of leadership and service.”

The rankings distributed by U.S. News and World Report are formulated with the use of statistical data and peer assessment scores from similar liberal arts colleges. Gustavus has an 89 percent retention rate (first-year students who return for their sophomore year) and an 81 percent four-year graduation rate. Other areas that the magazine uses to compare schools include class size, student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of faculty who are full-time, average alumni giving rate, and average SAT/ACT scores.

America’s Best Colleges is reportedly the top-selling college guidebook. This ranking groups schools into categories based on a national educational classification that includes liberal arts colleges, national universities, master’s degree-granting universities, and baccalaureate colleges.

Recently, Gustavus has also been ranked a “Best College” and a college with the best campus food by the Princeton Review.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

“This is great news that reinforces the fact that academic excellence is one of the pillars of the Gustavus experience,” President Jack R. Ohle said. “Gustavus’s outstanding graduation rate speaks volumes about the hard work put in every year by Gustavus faculty, who help students thrive and progress toward a liberal arts degree.”

The study, titled “Diplomas and Dropouts: Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don’t),” took the nearly 1.2 million students who entered college at four-year institutions in the fall of 2001 and examined what percentage of those students graduated by the spring of 2007. Gustavus ranked in a tie for ninth place with an 86 percent graduation rate in the category labeled “highly competitive.” The average six-year graduation rate in the highly competitive category was 75.2 percent.

“Not only does Gustavus have a high graduation rate, but we also have a high retention rate,” said Mark Anderson, Vice President for Enrollment Management. “Students who choose Gustavus are typically extremely pleased with their experience and the overwhelming majority graduate in four years.”

Babson College in Wellesley, Mass., topped the list with an 89 percent graduation rate. Other schools in the top 10 include Mount Holyoke College, the University of California, Berkeley, Grinnell College, Wheaton College, and St. Olaf College.

AEI is a private, non-partisan, not-for-profit institution based in Washington, D.C., dedicated to research and education on issues of government, politics, economics, and social welfare. Founded in 1943, AEI is home to some of America’s most accomplished public policy experts. The institute sponsors research and conferences and publishes books, monographs, and periodicals.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

With 18 alumni currently serving abroad in the United States Peace Corps, Gustavus Adolphus College has earned a top 10 ranking from the Peace Corps for the number of 2008 volunteers.

Gustavus ranked 10th on a list of the nation’s small colleges and universities, which includes schools with less than 5,000 undergraduate students. The University of Chicago topped the list with 35 alumni volunteers. Other schools in the top 10 included Dartmouth College, Oberlin College, Middlebury College, Macalester College, and St. Olaf College.

Erin Luhmann ‘08 is one Gustavus graduate currently serving in the Peace Corps. Luhmann is serving 27 months in Kyrgyzstan, teaching secondary English. You can follow Luhmann’s experience on her blog at erinluabroad.blogspot.com.

More than 195,000 people have volunteered in 139 different countries since the Peace Corps was established in 1961. Click here to view the entire rankings for 2008.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Gustavus students study abroad in more than 100 locations throughout the world.

Gustavus Adolphus College continues to be a leading institution in the nation when it comes to the number of students participating in studying abroad programs, according to an annual report released by the Institute of International Education (IIE). Gustavus was ranked eighth on the IIE’s 2007 Top 40 Baccalaureate Institutions list that is based on study-abroad statistics from the 2005-06 academic year.

Gustavus was one of six Minnesota private colleges to make the list and one of four Minnesota private colleges to crack the top ten. The entire rankings can be viewed by clicking here.

“The importance of off-campus study is a major component of the Gustavus mission and commitment to prepare all students for a global society,” International Education Director Patrick Quade said. “These programs provide Gustavus students with a rich and unique academic program contributing toward their degree requirements in addition to giving them an immersion experience in other cultures at study sites around the world.”

Recognizing international study as an important part of education, Gustavus students continue to study abroad in great numbers. After 397 Gustavus students studied abroad in 2004-05, 476 students did so in 2005-06. Gustavus students engage in international learning through various programs in more than 100 locations throughout the world.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

The College was surprised to find itself “unranked” in the 2008 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges guide. This new classification results not from a change in the high quality of a Gustavus education, but from the way it answered a series of questions in the magazine’s survey. These questions concerned the use of test scores in its admission process. Test score submission recently became optional at Gustavus; This year, 81 percent of applicants presented them for consideration.

Choosing a college is one of the most important life decisions many people will ever make. With the consumer in mind, most rankings and ratings outlets seek to capture and contextualize a range of data points of great relevance to young people and their families who are looking for the right school — the best fit at the right price. By those very types of measures, Gustavus remains an excellent choice for students of high promise and aspiration.

“The qualities that make Gustavus distinctive include our talented, well-prepared students; the commitment and high expectations of the faculty and staff; our innovative programs; and the supportive, welcoming environment of the campus,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Mary E. Morton. “The hallmark of the Gustavus community is the challenge and support faculty and staff offer our students and we are proud of their success as students and as graduates.”

Gustavus On The Move

The College enjoyed a 24 percent increase in applications for the current academic year and welcomed 670 first-year students and 40 transfer students to campus this fall. This year’s incoming class brought impressive achievements, as is typical at Gustavus. Similar to previous classes, eighty-five percent had completed Advanced Placement courses, average G.P.A. was 3.6, and more than a third hailed from the top 10 percent of their high school class. This year, the college also better balanced its male-to-female ratio. Twelve percent of first-year students come from underrepresented groups, mirroring Minnesota’s overall racial and ethnic demographics. Working to contain costs in a high-inflation industry, Gustavus capped its tuition increase at 6.7 percent this year, below that of many peer schools.

Institutionally, the College is stable and future-focused. In the past year, the LaVonne and Glen Johnson Center for Environmental Innovation was established and its director welcomed to campus. To support excellence throughout the academic program, faculty teaching loads have been reduced. Fundraising is energetic for the new John S. Kendall Center for Engaged Learning, which supports faculty development and faculty-student collaboration.

The College has transitioned to new programs and a new financial model to support growth of study-abroad programs. A new partnership was established with United International College in Zhuhai, China, and connections have been strengthened with higher education in Sweden. Gustavus is developing an innovative leadership development program with both curricular and co-curricular dimensions. Just this month, Gustavus dedicated a new, state-of-the-art football stadium, and plans are proceeding for a new academic building and development of the mall flowing westward from Christ Chapel to the Linnaeus Arboretum.

“Gustavus may have been designated by one magazine as ‘unranked,’” said President Jim Peterson, “but make no mistake: this college is on the move.”

The Board of Trustees has set the foundation for strategic planning, an effort now led by Provost Morton, who began her tenure this summer. Key future directions strongly align with the College’s mission to prepare students for fulfilling lives of leadership and service to society.

Gustavus will continue to enhance its academic program — building on academic strengths for a number of purposes such as the emerging leadership initiative with student affairs, undergraduate research programs, the Kendall Center, and plans for new and renovated academic facilities.

Gustavus is fostering integrated program areas — interdisciplinary centers organized around ideas where it wants to create more energy and focus. Some of these will be current programs that need and deserve more support and others will be new ventures. The focus is on “Education at the Intersections” — the intersections of academic interests and disciplines, of organizational boundaries and relationships.

The College is developing and enhancing positive and productive relationships with the Church and its congregations, and thinking more about the life of faith on campus and how that plays out in an increasingly diverse campus community.

Gustavus has made it a priority to continue globalizing its campus — with long-term goals of more students from abroad, more Gustavus students studying overseas, more faculty here from other countries and cultures, and new emphases in the curriculum as well. This, together with continuing commitments to creating and supporting all forms of diversity across the campus, will also support cultural competency.

Environmental stewardship is crucial at Gustavus, across the campus and beyond. Energy conservation efforts will take an especially prominent position this year. The College is looking seriously at how better to manage its environmental footprint and the influence that this will have on future campus development.

Rankings in Perspective

As Gustavus continues to focus on its own, intentional and mission-centered academic and strategic priorities, the field of ratings and rankings continues to be large and varied — from U.S. News to Washington Monthly, Barron’s, Princeton Review, Fiske, Vanguard, College Prowler and other media. Discussion continues in higher education as to whether and how such media can best help consumers make decisions about college.

Recently, Williams, Vassar, Pomona, Carleton, and Amherst colleges joined a dozen other prestigious schools to announce that they will no longer respond to special requests for data that come from rankings media, other than to provide a standardized form and links to their websites. The schools plan to refrain from use of rankings data in public relations and marketing materials.

The Annapolis Group, a consortium of presidents of 125 national liberal arts colleges including Gustavus, has shared the news that many of its members will no longer complete and return U.S. News’s reputation survey — a questionnaire that accounts for a quarter of the points used in the magazine’s overall ranking formula.

In May, the nonprofit Education Conservancy organized an open letter signed by 64 institutions, criticizing college rankings for what it called “false precision” and for fueling unhealthy “gamesmanship” in higher education. The letter urged schools to resist participation in the rankings and ratings surveys and rankings-based marketing.

Meanwhile, Gustavus is looking ahead to continued positive and supportive partnership with students and families seeking useful and important data to inform college decision-making. It recently joined more than 500 institutions in a new consumer information initiative called the University and College Accountability Network (U-CAN). In a common format, U-CAN will give prospective students and their families concise, web-based information on individual programs. The site is scheduled for launch by late September.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

“I opened the paper and read the headlines that Gustavus had vanished,” said President Jim Peterson. “So I walked out of my house to take a look. Sure enough, our beautiful campus was still there.”

The “unranking” was greeted by indifference in the Gustavus community because of the widespread view that the U.S. News ranking system does not fully measure the excellence and uniqueness of higher education experiences. This is increasingly the perception of students themselves. Fewer than four percent of Gustavus first-year students report that they consulted U.S. News rankings as a basis for their decision to attend, according to surveys of incoming students.

“We’re excellent on our own terms,” said Gustavus Board Chair Jim Gale. Gustavus President Peterson echoed this view. “Our students are interested in our school, not our ranking,” he said. “We are nationally known for our academic excellence and for our robust environment for student growth and learning. Gustavus is a success model for student research, study abroad, and faculty-student interaction. Our annual Nobel Conference brings internationally renowned scientists to campus every year as well.”

Applications hit an all-time high of more than 3,000 for this year. The incoming class is the most diverse in the College’s history, and mirrors the demographics of the State of Minnesota. The percentage of first-year students in the top 10 percent of their high school classes is also up from last year.

These results confirm the success of many efforts, including “test optional,” the admissions innovation that appears to have brought about some confusion at U.S. News. “We’re excited about test optional,” said Vice President for Admission and Student Financial Assistance Mark Anderson, “but it’s one of several areas not yet well understood or captured in U.S. News methodology.”

Because of increasing questions regarding the validity and relevance of U.S. News rankings, more and more college presidents are expressing concern and calling for alternatives. Some within higher education are assembling new criteria and measures to support the college choice process. The best known of these is the University and College Accountability Network’s Consumer Information Project, due for launch as soon as next month.

“To us, Gustavus students are more than a test score,” said Peterson. “And to our students, we are more than a ranking. Gustavus will continue to do what it does best, which is to prepare students for fulfilling lives of leadership and service.”

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

Gustavus is one of six Minnesota colleges in the top 100 national liberal arts colleges for overall quality.

Gustavus has an 89 percent freshman retention rate (students who return for their sophomore year) and an 81 percent four-year graduation rate. Other areas that the magazine uses to compare schools include class size and student-to-faculty ratio.

America’s Best Colleges is reportedly the top selling college guidebook. This ranking groups schools into categories based on a national educational classification that includes national liberal arts colleges, national doctoral universities, regional master’s degree-granting universities, and comprehensive regional colleges.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510

The new classifications describe five aspects of colleges and universities: instructional programs, enrollment profile, undergraduate demographics, size, and setting. Undergraduate instructional programs are now designated as Arts & Sciences Focus, Arts & Sciences plus Professions, Balanced Arts & Sciences and Professions, Professions plus Arts & Sciences, or Professions Focus.

Gustavus Adolphus College’s classification is Arts & Sciences plus Professions, indicating that 60 to 80 percent of Gustavus students complete a traditional liberal arts major such as political science, classics, or biology. This category, along with the designations small (under 3,000 students), exclusively undergraduate (no graduate students), four-year, highly residential, selective, and low transfer rate, complete the foundation’s profile of Gustavus.

“This new classification recognizes Gustavus’ strong commitment to the traditional liberal arts. We hold the conviction that the future belongs to those who are liberally educated,” said Mariangela Maguire, interim academic dean at Gustavus.
“All of our students, including those in professional programs, examine questions of meaning and value. They gain a deeper understanding of themselves and others, an appreciation for tradition, and a sense of their place in the larger world.”

The earlier classification didn’t recognize that colleges such as Gustavus also offer professional programs, such as nursing and education, that are taught from a liberal arts perspective. “A Gustavus degree prepares students to enter professions as well as professional and graduate programs,” Maguire added. Approximately 35 percent of graduates immediately enter graduate school, and more than 80 percent report pursuing advanced degrees.

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Media Contact: Media Relations Manager Matt Thomas
mthomas@gustavus.edu
507-933-7510