Brescia was chosen by U.S.News & World Report for a top 25 ranking in its 2012 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” in the category Regional Colleges in the South. Brescia moved up from being ranked 31 last year to 21 this year in the same category.
Schools in this particular category focus almost entirely on the undergraduate experience and offer a broad range of programs in the liberal arts and in field such as business, nursing and education.
“The 370 Regional Colleges, including 95 public institutions, 259 privates, and 16 for profits focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. The Regional Colleges category includes institutions where in some cases only a small number of the degrees awarded are at the bachelor’s level,” according to the U.S. News’ website.
The U.S. News college rankings group schools based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The 2012 Best Colleges package provides information from more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools and compares them on a set of up to 16 indicators of excellence. Among the many factors weighed in determining the rankings, the key measures of quality are: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving.