ATHENS, W.Va. (Hinton News) – The U.S. News and World Report has ranked Concord University among the Best Regional Universities South, the Top Public Schools, and the Top Performers on Social Mobility for 2022-2023.
After assessing 1500 U.S. bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on 17 measures of academic quality, the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings place Concord University at #39 in Top Public Schools and #83 in Regional Universities South. Only three other West Virginia public institutions made this list.
Social mobility measures how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants (typically from households earning less than $50,000 annually). In this category, Concord University ranked #42. Shepherd University and West Virginia State University tied for #113 and Fairmont State University ranked #130. The only West Virginia school to outrank Concord in this category was West Liberty University.
The 2022-2023 Best Colleges ranking factors include graduation and retention rates, social mobility, graduation rate performance, undergraduate academic reputation, faculty resources for the 2021-2022 academic year, student selectivity for the fall 2021 entering class, financial resources per student, average alumni giving rate, and graduate indebtedness.
In other rankings, Concord University made the list of Best Schools for Social Work. WVU and Marshall were the only other West Virginia institutions on this list. CU also made the list in Best Online Master’s in Education Programs, ranking higher than WVU and Marshall.
