Brescia was chosen by U.S. News & World Report for a top 40 ranking in its 2014 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” in the category Regional Colleges in the South.
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 U.S. News college rankings group schools based on categories created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The 2014 Best Colleges package provides information from 1,376 accredited four-year schools and compares them on a set of up to 16 indicators of excellence. New this year to the Best Colleges methodology was reducing the weight of input factors and increasing the weight of output measures. The factors that changed include moving from high school class standings of new students to placing more weight to SAT and ACT scores. The Best Colleges ranking also expanded the use of the graduation rate performance. Before, this indicator was only used for National Universities, but now applies to all Regional Universities and Colleges. Peer assessment weight was also decreased since graduate retention weight was increased. Other factors that are considered into the score include faculty resources, financial resources, and alumni giving.