EMBARGOED BY U.S. NEWS FOR RELEASE AFTER 12:01 A.M. FRIDAY, AUG. 19, 2005
Contact: Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

U.S.News & World Report Lists Centenary College in "America's Best Colleges" and "Best Values," Ranking 10th and 5th in South-Master's, Respectively

SHREVEPORT, LA- U.S.News & World Report has listed Centenary College of Louisiana among "America's Best Colleges" in its annual rankings announced today (Friday, Aug. 19, 2005). Centenary is ranked at No. 5 among 15 institutions designated as the South's "Great Schools, Great Prices."

In addition to that ranking, U.S. News lists Centenary at No. 10 among the 65 top Southern colleges and universities offering master's degrees and listed in its top two tiers. Last year's rankings were No. 10 and 11, respectively.

U.S. News & World Report, which annually selects its "Best Colleges" based on up to 15 indicators of academic excellence, makes this year's announcements in the magazine's Aug. 29 issue, which is on newsstands Monday, Aug. 22, and in its 2006 edition of the guidebook, America's Best Colleges, which will also be on newsstands beginning Monday.

To determine "Best College" rankings, the magazine's editors and researchers examine colleges' academic reputation, faculty resources, retention rate, class size, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate, student-faculty ratio and percent of alumni giving. Their list of "Great Schools, Great Prices" schools correlates schools' quality ranking with the net cost to a student who receives the average level of financial aid.

"Centenary is a strong community that fosters a vibrant intellectual atmosphere and personalized, distinctive experiences for students," President Kenneth L. Schwab said about the listing. "Such rankings—in U.S. News and in other national publications—reaffirm the fact that Centenary students are exceptionally well prepared to excel in their personal and professional lives."

Founded in 1825 and the nation's oldest college west of the Mississippi River, Centenary is located in Shreveport, La. It encourages students to investigate the unfamiliar, to solve problems imaginatively and to create connections to the campus and the rest of their world. Centenary, a private four-year college with graduate programs in business and education, offers 43 majors in its Natural Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities divisions.

This year's ranking marks the 16th consecutive year that Centenary has been included among "America's Best Colleges." Other Louisiana schools named to the top lists for the South were Loyola University, ranked 14th in the "Best Value" list and sixth among Southern universities-master's, and Xavier University of Louisiana, ranked 21st among the top Southern universities-master's. Both are located in New Orleans.

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