Elon University is ranked No. 2 for excellence in undergraduate teaching, and No. 10 for Most Innovative National University in U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” guide, according to information provided by Elon News Bureau Director Owen Covington.
Elon is ranked 88th overall among American universities and No. 55 among private universities.
It’s the second straight year for the excellence in undergraduate teaching ranking.
“I am especially proud of Elon’s No. 2 national ranking for teaching excellence,” President Connie Ledoux Book said. “This is a defining characteristic of our university, and that has been especially apparent this year.”
The top 10 in undergraduate teaching are:
- Brown University;
- Elon University;
- Georgia State University;
- Princeton University;
- College of William & Mary;
- Rice University;
- Dartmouth College;
- Boston College; and
- Duke and Stanford universities.
It’s the sixth straight year that Elon has led in “Focus on Student Success.” Elon is also the only college or university in the top 20 in all eight categories of high-impact academic programs. Elon ranked:
No. 1 in Learning Communities and Study Abroad
No. 2 in First-Year Experiences, Senior Capstone and Service Learning;
No. 7 in Internships/Co-ops;
No. 10 in Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects; and
No. 19 in Writing in the Disciplines.
Duke University was ranked in the top 20 in seven categories, Yale University and Agnes Scott College in six, and Stanford, Brown and Princeton universities and Amherst College in five.
The top 10 Most Innovative National Universities are:
- Arizona State University-Tempe;
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
- Georgia State University;
- Georgia Institute of Technology;
- Purdue University-West Lafayette;
- Stanford University;
- California Institute of Technology;
- Carnegie Mellon University;
- University of Maryland-Baltimore County; and
- Elon University.
Other North Carolina “Most Innovative” schools include:
No. 50: UNC-Chapel Hill; and
No. 68: N.C. State University.
Elon also ranks No. 64 in graduation and student retention, with 90 percent of first-year students returning for their sophomore years, and 85 percent going on to graduate within six years. Elon is one of only 10 schools with 0 percent of classes larger than 50 students.
North Carolina colleges and universities in the overall National Universities rankings include:
No. 28: Wake Forest University;
No. 80: N.C. State University;
No. 217: East Carolina University;
No. 258: Campbell University;
No. 272: N.C. A&T State University;
No. 284: Gardner-Webb University; and
No. 298-389: Wingate University.
The top schools in the National Universities category this year are, in rank order, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale, Stanford, the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, the California Institute of Technology, the Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern. Elon moved into the National Universities category in 2019 after being classified as a Doctoral/Professional University by the Carnegie Classification of Colleges.
U.S. News & World Report has been producing college rankings since 1983. The rankings are based on an extensive annual data survey of institutions along with opinion surveys of university faculty and administrators.