Goldey-Beacom College Moves Up on U.S. News & World Report Rankings

For the second year, Goldey-Beacom College (GBC) has risen in the ranks of the U.S. News & World Report’s Regional University-North category.

Following Goldey-Beacom’s reclassification as a Master’s Colleges & Universities: Larger Programs by Carnegie Classifications in 2022, U.S. News & World Report began including the College in its rankings last year. In its first year, the College placed in the lower tier of colleges which is grouped at the bottom of the rankings (#133 – #172) as is the case for colleges with no prior year for data comparison.

This year, the College moved up the list to #123 alongside its fellow NCAA Division II conference members Felician University and Holy Family University as well as close neighbor Neumann University. As more data accumulates in the coming years, the Colleges expects to climb even higher in the rankings.

In recent years, the U.S. News & World Report rankings have come under scrutiny for placing too great an emphasis on peer impressions. Each year, college presidents, provosts and deans are asked to rate competitors on a five-point scale or mark “don’t know” on their survey. This component counts for 20% of the ranking and is regarded by many as subjective and too reliant on hearsay and casual impressions.

Goldey-Beacom President Colleen Perry Keith says, “Understandably, most college administrators in places such as Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont know little to nothing of Goldey-Beacom College, and their ‘don’t know’ responses serve to suppress the College’s score in this category, once again reinforcing the College’s perennial recognition as a Hidden Gem —great colleges you’ve never heard of.”

“Battling the ‘I’ve never heard of your college’ on as many fronts as we can has been one of my primary goals for the College,” said Dr. Keith, “and getting listed on this annual ranking helps combat that challenge.”

While this is one area in which the College did not fare well, and one that counts the most in the rankings, the College succeeded in Least Student Debt, ranking at #17 and fared well in Campus Ethnic Diversity (#25), Economic Diversity (#58) and Social Mobility (#82) out of 178. The latter categories align with the College’s mission and reflect success in the areas most valued by the College.

Goldey-Beacom’s strong impact on the lives of its students was nationally recognized when Washington, DC think tank Third Way released its second annual Economic Mobility Rankings for colleges in August 2023. The College was ranked as a Tier One institution, which reflects the top 20%, in lifting its moderate to low-income students up financially beyond graduation. This ranking system has been put forth as a challenge to ranking systems that perpetually rank colleges based on popularity rather than outcomes.