August 22, 1997

U.S. News Gives Loyola High Marks

Loyola ranked eighth in the category of best regional universities in the South in the 11th annual America's Best Colleges issue and guidebook published by U.S. News & World Report.

This is the second consecutive year that Loyola holds the eighth place ranking. In commenting on this year's ranking, University President, the Rev. Bernard P. Knoth, S.J., said, "We are pleased to be ranked among the top 15 regional universities in the South. The survey results reflect the strength of our academic programs and the quality of our student body and faculty."

The results of this year's survey were based on questionnaires sent to some 1,400 four-year schools. The completed surveys were double-checked with the schools and cross-checked with data collected by other sources. This year, 95 percent of the schools returned the questionnaires.

The survey methodology weighed the following attributes: academic reputation, 25 percent; retention, 25 percent; faculty resources, 20 percent; student selectivity, 15 percent; financial resources, 10 percent; and alumni giving rate, 5 percent. To get the final rankings of each school, U.S. News first calculated a score for each attribute by assigning the school with the highest value for each component of an attribute a score of 100 percent. Every other school's value was then taken as a percentage of the top value. Resulting scores were weighted and totaled for the attribute scores. Those scores were weighted and totaled for the final score and sorted in descending order.