Keuka College has once again been included in U.S. News & World Report’s annual assessment of the nation’s best colleges and universities.
The news organization’s 2024 Best Colleges rankings, announced today, included Keuka College among the 167 best colleges and universities in the North region, which includes New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine.
The U.S. News rankings, now in their 39th year, evaluate nearly 1,500 four-year colleges and universities on some two dozen measures of academic quality, including graduation rates, peer assessment, and student-faculty ratio.
The statistics, said U.S. News, “pertain to measures reflecting academic quality and graduate outcomes – factors that are universally important to prospective students.”
The magazine also ranked the College at No. 85 in the region among its 167 Top Performers for Social Mobility, up one spot from the previous year. This reflects the College’s focus on enrolling and graduating students from families in lower income brackets.
“Economically disadvantaged students are less likely than others to finish college, even when controlling for other characteristics.,” according to U.S. News. “But some colleges are more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of disadvantaged students awarded with Pell Grants.”
Federal Pell Grants are available to undergraduate students who display exceptional financial need and, unlike loans, usually do not have to be paid back.
“More than half of our incoming on-campus and online students are Pell-eligible,” said Keuka College Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing Pete Bekisz. “Keuka College has long provided a variety of services aimed specifically at supporting this cohort of students – financially, academically, socially, and emotionally. This commitment likely accounts for recognition from U.S. News & World Report.”
Keuka College is regularly cited for the social mobility of its graduates. U.S. News has included the College in its rankings for the past three years and the New York Times, in 2017, ranked the College in the top 10% nationally for the economic mobility of its graduates. According to the Times, that measure reflected the likelihood that a Keuka College graduate would move up between 20% and 40% in income brackets.
The College’s success in improving the lives of graduates has also been cited by a second publication in recent weeks. Washington Monthly last month included Keuka College on its 2023 list of Best Bang for the Buck Colleges.
The magazine said the list cites, “schools that help moderate to low-income students attain marketable degrees at affordable prices.”
