A diverse student body, high academic quality and student satisfaction, and a strong faculty, are among the factors that went into Knox College's ranking by U.S. News and World Report, released this week by the magazine. Knox remains ranked in the top half of the National Liberal Arts Colleges category, as it has been since the rankings were first published in 1991.
Knox is also ranked tenth in the nation as a "Best Value" among the National Liberal Arts colleges. The "Best Value" rankings are based on both academic quality and the level of financial aid provided to students.
With eleven-percent of its students coming from outside the United States, Knox is ranked third among 160 national liberal arts colleges by U.S. News in the proportion of international students. The international ranking, the magazine has written, puts Knox among the top colleges in the nation for "students preparing to work in a global economy [who] want the opportunity to know and learn from foreign students."
"Knox is well known for having bright and talented students who come from all around the world, and for having faculty who emphasize excellence in both teaching and research," said Admission Director Paul Steenis. "Students looking at colleges can use any number of criteria. One of the most useful we've found -- because it emphasizes personal experience and direct observation of campus life -- is Loren Pope's book, Colleges That Change Lives."
The "Best Colleges" rankings were released Friday, Sept. 1 on the U.S. News website, usnews.com.They also will be published subsequently in U.S. News and World Report magazine, and in a companion reference book, America's Best Colleges.
Factors about Knox that went into this year's rankings include:
US News says its rankings now "put more emphasis on data that indicate how well each school is educating students once they enroll -- such as the percentage of a college's entering class that returns for a second year." At Knox, 85% of entering students return for their second year.
Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,220 students from 47 states and 41 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.
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