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UNC Asheville Earns High Marks from Forbes Magazine College Rankings

August 5, 2011

As college classes begin across the nation, so does the season for new national college rankings. In the latest of rankings released this summer, UNC Asheville has again taken top honors. Forbes magazine has ranked UNC Asheville 26th in the nation in its "Top 100 Best Buy Colleges" roster, published this week.

The "Best Buy" ranking is part of Forbes' larger annual ranking of the nation's best 650 undergraduate institutions. Forbes based its rankings of best undergraduate colleges on the quality of teaching, career prospects, graduation rates, and student debt levels. The Forbes rankings were prepared by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, in Washington, D.C.

UNC Asheville is one of eight universities in North Carolina included in Forbes' “Top 100 Best Buy” list. Also included are: UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, UNC Greensboro, Appalachian State University, Eastern Carolina University, UNC Wilmington, and UNC Charlotte.

Earlier this week, UNC Asheville was among those featured in the Princeton Review's new edition of "The Best 376 Colleges," which rates the top 15 percent of colleges and universities in the nation based on a survey of 122,000 students nationwide. The Princeton Review also listed UNC Asheville as one of 20 institutions that have "Great College Towns."

In July 2011, the new edition of the "Fiske Guide to Colleges" ranked UNC Asheville among the nation's top colleges, and for the eighth consecutive year, UNC Asheville's Environmental Studies Program was among 29 in the nation that showed unusual strength in preparing students for careers.

In June 2011, UNC Asheville was named one of America's "10 best colleges for the money" by Bankrate.com, a leading online source of financial information. UNC Asheville was the only college in North Carolina to earn a place on this list.