For the tenth consecutive year, the University of North Carolina Wilmington is one of the top 10 public master's universities in the South in the annual college rankings by U.S.News & World Report. UNCW ranks sixth in the 2008 edition.
Among the 119 public and private universities in the South that provide a full range of undergraduate and master's level programs, UNCW improved its overall ranking to 14th this year. UNCW's ranking resulted from improvement in many of the following categories:
- Peer assessment;
- Retention, including six-year graduation and freshman retention rates, Faculty resources, including proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students, proportion with 50 or more students, faculty salaries, proportion of faculty with highest degrees in their fields, student-faculty ratio and proportion of full-time faculty;
- Student selectivity, including student SAT/ACT scores and proportion of enrolled freshmen in top 25 percent of high school class and ratio of students admitted to applicants;
- Financial resources, average spending per student on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures;
- Alumni giving rate.
A complete report of the rankings can be viewed online at http://www.usnews.com or in U.S.News & World Report and the newsstand book America's Best Colleges.
For the fourth consecutive year, UNC Wilmington received the 2008 "Best in the Southeast" and "Best Value" designations by The Princeton Review.
UNC Wilmington is among the 146 colleges named a Best Southeastern College for 2008, which the publication describes as "some of the colleges and universities that we feel stand out in the region."
In addition, UNCW is designated as one of the best overall bargains -- based on cost and financial aid -- among the most academically outstanding colleges throughout the United States.
Colleges were selected based upon student responses to a survey about their respective schools' academics, administration, campus life, and student body.
The Princeton Review is a New York City-based company known for its test prep courses, education services and books. It has conducted the survey since 1992, when it first published its annual "Best Colleges" -- the only guide offering college rankings based on students' ratings of their experiences with them.
Lists of top 20 colleges in more than 50 categories are in the new 2008 edition of The Princeton Review book, Best 366 Colleges and can be viewed at http://www.PrincetonReview.com.
UNC Wilmington is one of the top five "Best Values" among public universities in North Carolina, according to Kiplinger's 2008 rankings. We are ranked 36th nationally for value to in-state students and 51st for out-of-state students. Kiplinger's said schools in the top 100 "are noteworthy for their combination of top-flight academics and affordable costs."
UNC Wilmington's Creative Writing Program was recently named as one of the "Five Top Innovative/Unique Programs in Creative Writing", in The Atlantic magazine's 2007 Fiction Issue.
The article highlighted top creative writing programs in the U.S. Categories included: "Five Highly-Selective Programs"; "Ten Top Graduate Programs in Creative Writing"; "Five Top Ph.D. Programs in Creative Writing"; "Five Top Low-Residency MFA Programs"; "Five Innovative/Unique Programs"; and "Five Top-Funded Programs".
The article can be read online in its entirety.
UNC Wilmington is included in Peterson's Competitive Colleges 2008: Top Colleges for Top Students. Of the 440 institutions highlighted, UNC Wilmington, UNC Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University and UNC Asheville are the only public institutions in North Carolina listed.
