Voorhees College is once again among the best Regional Colleges in the South, according to 2022 U.S. News and World Report rankings. Voorhees tied for 48 along with the University of Arkansas, Fort Smith—a six-point improvement in the rankings over the previous year.
Voorhees also ranked four in top performers on Social Mobility—which measures how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grant, 18 among private Historically Black Colleges and Universities and 46 among all HBCUs ranked.
“These rankings demonstrate Voorhees College’s commitment to educational excellence. We are grateful to faculty and staff who do their very best every day to enhance teaching and learning at our institution. I am honored to work with them to take Voorhees to the next level of excellence,” said Ronnie Hopkins, president of Voorhees College.
Criteria used for the rankings include outcomes such as graduation rates, retention rates and social mobility; faculty resources; expert opinion from presidents, provosts and admissions leaders who rate academic quality of peer institutions; financial resources; student excellence; and alumni giving.
According to U.S. News, it surveyed schools in the spring and summer of 2021. Some of this information published on its website—most notably tuition and fees—reflects the 2021-2022 academic year. However, the latest data available for the ranking calculations pertained to fall 2020 and earlier. Notably, SAT/ACT scores mostly reflect a test-taking period from 2019 to early 2020, before the effects of the coronavirus were felt in the United States. To account for the disruption to higher education due to the ongoing pandemic, U.S. News slightly adjusted how it assessed SAT/ACT scores and made greater use of historic data for a few of the other ranking indicators, listed above.
