Hollins University is ranked #16 among the country’s Top Performers on Social Mobility and #32 on the list of Best Value Schools, according to the new U.S. News 2022 Best Colleges.
Hollins received both rankings in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category.
To determine the Top Performers on Social Mobility, U.S. News & World Report explains that it looks at “colleges that enrolled and graduated large proportions of economically disadvantaged students who were awarded federal Pell Grants. The vast majority of these federal grants are awarded to students whose adjusted gross family incomes are under $50,000.”
The Best Value Schools ranking “weighs a college’s academic quality alongside the net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid,” the guide, now in its 37th edition, reports. “The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal. Only schools ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included because U.S. News considers the most significant values to be among colleges that are above average academically.”
Hollins is ranked #105 overall in the National Liberal Arts category, and is also cited as an A+ School for B Students.
“To judge the level of quality at each institution on the A-Plus Schools for B Students lists, U.S. News & World Report first examined two variables: the school’s performance in the 2022 edition of the Best Colleges rankings and the average freshman retention rate. Since the U.S. News rankings are a gauge of excellence, schools in National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges all had to first be ranked in the top three-fourths of their 2022 Best Colleges ranking categories to be eligible for the A-Plus Schools for B Students ranking list.” In addition, the guide notes, “colleges had to admit a meaningful proportion of students who didn’t get straight A’s in high school.”
The U.S. News 2022 Best Colleges rankings were released to the public on September 13.
