In an exclusive new ranking from U.S. News & World Report, Anderson University is ranked #1 in the South among regional colleges for the combination of academic quality and cost efficiency.
According to Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S. News, the new ranking was developed in this age of rising higher education costs to highlight those institutions who achieve high rankings for their academic programs but spend less money to achieve that quality.
According to Morse, “schools that are featured on this list are doing a good job in managing their financial resources relative to other schools that may have larger state funding, higher tuition or larger endowments.”
Only schools that were ranked in the top half of the Best Colleges rankings by U.S. News were considered for the new designation. Anderson was ranked in the top tier (#20 among Southern regional colleges) on that list for 2014.
Though the new efficiency ranking is new, this marks the second time in recent years the publication has recognized AU for holding down cost. U.S. News recently listed AU as a university whose graduates leave with the least amount of educational debt.