UMW is making the grade in higher education. Take a look at where Mary Washington stands in the most recent major selective guide publications:
- Affordable Colleges Online in July rated UMW 44th on its “Affordable Colleges With High Returns” list and 20th on its “Cheap Colleges With High Starting Salaries for Graduates” list. Ratings were based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Data System, Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, and Payscale.com.
- Diverse: Issues in Higher Education named UMW among the top 100 minority-degree producers for 2013. For management information systems master’s degrees, UMW ranked eighth for Hispanics, 23rd for all minority groups, and 24th for African Americans. Rankings are based on U.S. Department of Education reports submitted by institutions.
- EducatedQuest.com, a college guide website that aims to deliver more detailed profiles than other publications, named UMW in August to its list of “best buy” public colleges and universities. Rankings were based on graduation rates, tuition and fees, and average indebtedness.
- Fiske Guide to Colleges: 2014 Best Buys, published in June, included UMW among the 21 public colleges in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. that offer outstanding academics for the most reasonable prices, marking the fourth consecutive year Mary Washington was the only institution in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., on the list. Ratings were based on questionnaires completed by students and administrators.
- Forbes ranked UMW 229th on its “America’s Top Colleges” list, released in July. The list considered such factors as student satisfaction, postgraduate success, student debt, graduation rate, and nationally competitive awards.
- Kiplinger’s “Best Values in Public Colleges” list, published in January, ranked UMW fifth in Virginia and 53rd out of 100 four-year public institutions nationwide. Rankings were based on Peterson’s Undergraduate Database.
- The Princeton Review included UMW in its 2014 edition of The Best 378 Colleges, published in August. Ratings were based on surveys of 126,000 students, who rated everything from financial aid to campus food. Colleges were scored in eight categories, including admissions, academics, and politics.
- In U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges 2014, released in September, UMW ranked fifth among public universities in the South; tied for 13th among universities, both public and private, in the same region. Rankings were based on peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty and financial resources, student selectivity, and alumni giving.
- Virginia Living’s State of Education supplement, released in October, listed UMW among the commonwealth’s 150 most innovative educational programs. It included Mary Washington in its “Science, Math, and Technology” list for the Domain of One’s Own project, giving incoming freshmen an opportunity to create a unique online presence; in its “Co-Ops and Partnerships” list for the expansion of an agreement with the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren, allowing chemistry students to work with Navy personnel; and in its “Capital Improvements” list for the construction of the 76,000-square-foot Information and Technology Convergence Center, set to open next year.