(August 7, 2009)

Contact: Rick DelaHaya, Centenary News Services, 318.869.5073.

Centenary Named One of "America's Best Colleges" in Forbes.com Annual Rankings

Forbes.com

SHREVEPORT, La.—Centenary College has added a second accolade in as many weeks when the College was named one of "America's Best Colleges" for undergraduate education, according to Forbes.com, in association with Forbes magazine, a leading internet, financial and business company.

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The College jumps up in overall rankings to 90th from a list of 600 undergraduate institutions across the country in the just-published edition of "America's Best Colleges for 2009." In 2008, Centenary held the rank of 164 out of 569 colleges on the list.

The report went on to name Centenary as one of America's Best College Buys with a ranking of 38 out of 100 colleges, as well as one of America's Best Private Colleges, coming in at number 80 among 100 colleges named. Only 23 schools placed in the top 100 of both the best colleges and best buys lists, including Centenary College. Whereas the top schools on the best college list are concentrated in the East, the best value schools are disproportionately located in the South.

In conjunction with Dr. Richard Vedder, an economist at Ohio University, and the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, the report ranks the 600 undergraduate institutions based on the quality of the education they provide, the experience of the students and how much their students achieve.

CCAP's methodology attempts to put itself in a student's shoes with questions such as "How good will my professors be, will the school help me achieve notable career success, if I have to borrow to pay for college, how deeply will I go into debt, what are the chances I will graduate in four years, and are students and faculty recognized nationally, or even globally?"

FORBES.com Rankings

To answer these questions, the staff at CCAP gathered data from a variety of sources. They based 25 percent of the rankings on 4 million student evaluations of courses and instructors, as recorded on the Web site RateMyProfessors.com. Another 25 percent is based on post-graduate success, equally determined by enrollment-adjusted entries in Who's Who in America, and by a new metric, the average salaries of graduates reported by Payscale.com.

An additional 20 percent is based on the estimated average student debt after four years. One-sixth of the rankings are based on four-year college graduation rates—half of that is the actual graduation rate, the other half the gap between the average rate and a predicted rate based on characteristics of the school. The last component is based on the number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won nationally competitive awards like Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.

Click here for a complete list of rankings, or read how Forbes.com compiled the rankings.


About Centenary College of Louisiana

Centenary College is a private, four-year arts and sciences college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Founded in 1825, it is the oldest chartered liberal arts college west of the Mississippi River and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Centenary is one of 16 colleges and universities constituting the Associated Colleges of the South and is regularly rated as one of the top colleges in the South. In 2008 Centenary College celebrates 100 years in Shreveport and Bossier City.