For the fourth consecutive year, Catawba College is included in Forbes’ “America’s Top Colleges.” Catawba is one of only 20 North Carolina public and private institutions included in this annual listing and is ranked 165 among colleges in the South, 381 on the list of private colleges, and 599 among the 650 best undergraduate colleges.
Catawba’s inclusion in this list follows the April 2014 news that it was also included (for the second year in a row) in Forbes’ 2014 Grateful Graduate Index — one of only four colleges in North Carolina to make the list. That index ranks the best long-term value, or return-on-investment, of the top 100 private, not-for-profit colleges enrolling more than 1,000 students. Other North Carolina institutions on the index include Davidson College, Duke University, and Wake Forest University.
Forbes’ released its “America’s Top Colleges” listing on July 30, touting it as a ranking that “counts what matters.” The lead paragraph of Carolina Howard’s online article on the Forbes’ website says: “We ignore the abstract (reputation) and wasteful (spending-per-student) to focus on one measurement: outcome.”
Forbes partnered with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, D.C. think tank, to create its Top Colleges rankings, focusing on return on investment. The rankings are based on five general categories: post graduate success (32.5 percent), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence; student satisfaction (25 percent); student debt (25 percent); four-year graduation rate (7.5 percent); and academic success (10 percent).
For a complete listing of all colleges making the 2014 Forbes’ list visit www.forbes.com/top-colleges .