(Vocus) August 25, 2009
Oklahoma Wesleyan University has been listed among America’s Very best Colleges by each Forbes and U.S. News & World Report. Each ranking is based on various criteria and is hugely sought amongst America’s institutions of greater education.

Six Hundred institutions are ranked by Forbes, which includes national study universities and smaller liberal arts colleges. Forbes ranks OKWU as #155 in the nation. That tends to make it the highest ranked university (on Forbes’ list) of any kind in Northeast Oklahoma, and second in Oklahoma, ahead of OU, OSU, TU, UCO and ORU.

According to a Forbes press release, “Traditionally, institutions of higher education have been categorized by their Carnegie classification. U.S. News & Planet Report and some other rankings use, occasionally with a bit of modification, categories such as National Study Universities or Liberal Arts Colleges. Usually a distinction is also created among public and private schools. In its core rankings, we eschew that approach, preferring to list all schools in a single ranking. It is our belief that college students go to college to receive a bachelor’s degree and generally are open to getting it from diverse varieties of institutions.”

Forbes goes on to say, “As in 2008, we base 25% of the rankings on student satisfaction with their course instruction. Also, like last year, we base yet another 25% on indicators of post-graduate employment success, and one-sixth (16.67%) on the likelihood of graduation from college inside four years. Final year, we weighted the estimated typical 4-year student loan debt at a single-sixth (16.67%) in the rankings. Provided the increasing charges, debt levels and linked issues with this concern, we have enhanced the weight to 20% this year.”

The U.S. News & World Report 2010 edition of America’s Ideal Colleges locations OKWU at #9, Ideal in the West, for baccalaureate colleges and the #7 Greatest Worth in the West. U. S. News & Globe Report breaks the 1400 colleges and universities into acceptable categories for comparisons. It states, “This 2010 edition of America’s Best Colleges uses the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching’s 2006 Standard version of its classifications. Carnegie groups American colleges and universities according to their mission as defined by variables such as the highest level of degrees conferred by discipline.”

“U.S. News & World Report collapses nine of those Carnegie categories into four primary groupings: National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Universities-Master’s, and Baccalaureate Colleges. The schools in the Universities-Master’s and Baccalaureate Colleges categories are placed into one particular of four geographic regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.”

U. S. News & World Reports defines a baccalaureate college as a single that focuses “mostly on undergraduate education, just as the liberal arts colleges do, but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. At these schools, at least 10 percent of undergraduate degrees awarded are bachelor’s degrees. There are 319 baccalaureate colleges, ranked inside 4 regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.” The west includes Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii and Alaska.

Oklahoma Wesleyan University is a 4-year, Christian university of the liberal arts and sciences that is accredited by the North Central Association. OWU also receives specialist accreditation from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), and the International Assembly of Collegiate Company Education (IACBE). It is a member of the Council of Christian Colleges and Universities as well as the Council of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Association of Oklahoma Independent Colleges and Universities.

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