MC Climbs in U.S. News & World Report Rankings

Mississippi College's ranking in overall quality has climbed a few notches in the latest U.S. News & World Report survey of America's colleges and universities.

The magazine's "America's Best Colleges" report released Friday shows MC moved up to 20th place among the South's Best Universities at the master's degree level. That's up from No. 29 a year ago. The magazine measured schools' retention rates, alumni giving, class size, graduation rates, ACT scores and the percentage of students in the top 25 percent of their high school class.

U.S. News & World Report also rates the Christian University in Clinton in sixth place among Southern master's universities - unchanged from a year ago - when evaluating the school's quality in light of its costs.

The newest rankings pleased MC President Lee Royce and confirmed what he and many others know about the school that should see its record 4,162 enrollment of last fall be surpassed by at least 7 percent.

"We are gratified to be rated so favorably and see our position climb in the overall rankings," Royce said. "This is the culmination of hard work by a lot of outstanding faculty, staff and students. We hope to continue to make progress in the eyes of U.S. News & World Report and other national publications that evaluate higher education."

"Still, the best indicator we can find anywhere is the judgment of our students and we feel that's been positive," Royce said.

MC leaders are happy to see a record number of freshmen here - a growth rate of at least 11 percent over a year ago, and the school's residence halls are packed. These are all good signs, said Royce, who's starting his 6th year as MC's leader.

Founded in 1826, MC is Mississippi's oldest college and the second oldest Baptist college in the nation. For more than a dozen straight years, the college has been listed on the "Honor Roll of Character Building Institutions" of the John Templeton Foundation.

Copies of the U.S. News & World Report's 2008 edition of "America's Best Colleges" will be available on news stands Mon., August 20.