Xavier Gets High Marks for Value in 2020 U.S. News College Guide

New Orleans LA – Adding to its growing list of national accolades, Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) was recognized as one of the nation’s top Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as well as a best value among southern regional universities in the recently released “Best Colleges 2020” guide by the U.S. News Media Group.

Among HBCUs, scored a significant rise in its ranking this year, moving up two spots to No. 3 among the nation’s 72 Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs), behind only Spelman College and Howard University.

Among all U.S. colleges and universities, U.S. News ranked Xavier 17th out of 92 schools in its grouping of the “Best Regional Universities – South”. That’s up 11 spots from last year. Schools are considered regional universities if they offer a full range of undergraduate programs and some master's programs, but few doctoral programs. Another criteria is that they draw the majority of their students from surrounding states. The southern region grouping consists of 12 states in the southeastern United States.

In the category of “value”, Xavier ranked 28th in its region. In compiling the list, U.S. News made a determination of what colleges and universities offered the best value for the money as based on each school’s academic quality and its net cost of attendance for students who received the average level of need-based financial aid. Xavier did not make the list last year.

Xavier received high marks in three other categories: Social Mobility (4th), a measure of how well schools graduate students who receive federal Pell grants; Most Innovative (7th), schools judged to be making the most cutting-edge improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology, and facilities; and Best Undergraduate Teaching (13th), those schools which display an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.

The complete U.S. News report can be found at https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges.