
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 8, 1995                   TAG: 9509080073
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ADRIANNE BEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

VA. COLLEGES TOP MAGAZINE LIST

Three Virginia colleges were ranked among the best liberal arts colleges in the South in U.S. News & World Report's annual survey: Mary Baldwin College was first; Roanoke College was third; and Emory & Henry College was fourth.

Nearly 1,500 four-year colleges nationwide were surveyed by the magazine. The survey takes a variety of factors into consideration, including academic reputation, graduation rate, student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, faculty-student ratio and quality of students and faculty.

Among national universities, the University of Virginia was ranked 19th and the College of William and Mary was ranked 34th.

Harvard University grabbed the top spot for the sixth straight year. Princeton and Yale tied for second

Virginia Tech didn't make the magazine's list of the top 50 national universities, but Hokies will be glad to hear that Tech's engineering school ranked 17th in the country. Rival UVa's engineering school ranked 38th.

UVa's undergraduate business school ranked seventh overall, and its general management department ranked fifth.

The College of William and Mary's business program was 37th and Virginia Tech's was 48th.

James Madison University was the top-rated public university in academic quality among Southern regional universities. JMU ranked first among public universities and sixth among all universities in the South.

In teaching quality, which is defined as "an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching," the College of William and Mary ranked third and UVa came in 11th. Among the top Southern liberal arts schools in teaching quality were Emory & Henry College, which ranked second, and Mary Baldwin College, which came in fourth.

The Sept. 18 issue of U.S. News contains the college academic quality rankings and will be available on newsstands Monday. The annual "Best Values" rankings will appear on newsstands the following Monday.

Last spring, the Wall Street Journal found that some colleges had sent inaccurate data to U.S. News and other magazines that compile college rankings, including inflated SAT scores for incoming freshmen.

Universities often use the rankings to attract students.

In a note to readers, U.S. News said it took steps this year to verify what the colleges told it. Those include checking college data against information that colleges also must provide to Moody's Investors Service and the National Collegiate Athletic Associaton.

Some information for this story came from the Associated Press.

by CNB