For the second year in a row, Union College was designated one of the best values in American higher education in U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings. Placing Union near the top its category of Midwestern regional colleges, the list seeks to identify which schools offer the best ratio between the quality of education and the cost to students.
"With every decision we make, our guiding principle is to keep a quality, Christian education financially accessible to our students," said Vinita Sauder, Union College president. "And we love seeing our hard work recognized by an independent source like U.S. News." According to Sauder, the rankings reveal two groups of heroes: the faculty and staff who provide an environment for students that is both challenging and caring, and Union's alumni and friends whose financial support allows the university to keep tuition low and award scholarships.
Joining Pacific Union College and Southern Adventist University, Union College is one of only three Adventist institutions to make this year's "Best Value Schools" list. However, most Adventist colleges and universities are ranked in the top tier for their category in the overall "Best Colleges" rankings, and Adventist schools were near the top of another list included in the publication: ethnic diversity. On that metric, Union College ranked second in its category.
For 35 years, U.S. News rankings have been the most comprehensive and well-known tool for parents and prospective students to directly compare American colleges and universities. This year, the publication evaluated 1,921 colleges and universities divided into categories based on region and the types of degrees conferred. Union College is included in the regional college category because of its focus on undergraduate and career-oriented degrees (granting more than 50 percent of degrees in professional fields and fewer than 50 graduate degrees each year). This is the fourteenth consecutive year Union College has ranked in the top tier for our category on the overall "Best Colleges" ranking.
To see the methodology and data used by the publication to rank colleges, click here.