Alabama A&M moves up in college rankings list

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Alabama A&M University moved up 10 spots in the 2011 U.S. News & World Report rankings of colleges and universities released this week.

Specifically, Alabama A&M^[1] improved from No. 28 to No. 18 among Historically Black Colleges and Universities^[2]. Of the 17 school ranked ahead of Alabama A&M, 12 are private institutions.

Alabama A&M is also the top-ranked public HCBU in the state. Tuskegee University, a private HBCU, is ranked in a tie for fifth in the magazine's ratings.

U.S. News' "Best Black Colleges" were comprised based on average freshman retention rate, average graduation rate, percentage of classes under 20 students, percentage of classes over 50 or more, student-faculty ratio, percentage of full-time faculty, SAT/ACT percentiles, freshmen in top quarter of their high school class, acceptance rate and peer assessment.

According to Alabama A&M, it is probable that AAMU's rating could have improved even more dramatically had it provided more compelling data on its alumni giving rate, said President Dr. Andrew Hugine. Alumni giving is among a dozen factors used in compiling the annual listing.

"We definitely encourage our alumni to give something," urges Hugine. "The amount is not nearly as important as the percentage at which they give."

The peer assessment also puts a premium on Alabama A&M's reputation, Hugine said.

"This assessment is the result of how we are perceived and the information that is published about our university," Hugine said. "It further underscores how important our image and perception is to rankings such as these."

Follow me on Twitter @paul_gattis^[3]

References

1. ^{^} Alabama A&M (colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com)
2. ^{^} Historically Black Colleges and Universities (colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com)
3. ^{^} @paul_gattis (twitter.com)