Rankings
HBU Receives Top Tier Ranking in U.S.News & World Report America's Best Colleges 2007, Named "Best Value"
For the third consecutive year, HBU has been ranked in the top tier among the "Best Universities" offering master's degrees in the Western region by U.S.News & World Report in its America's Best Colleges for 2007 edition, receiving a ranking of 49th among the 123 schools in its category. In 2006, HBU received a 57th ranking.
HBU was also ranked 11th among colleges and universities in its category for best value. Those rankings are based on the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of financial aid. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the value is considered. Only schools ranked in the top tier of their categories are included on the premise that the most significant values are among colleges that are above average academically.
In the three years since HBU achieved a top tier ranking, its SAT 25th-75th percentile has risen from 950-1190 to 1000-1230. HBU's smaller class sizes also contributed to its rankings, with fewer than 20 students in 57 percent of its classes and only one percent of classes with more than 50 students. Another key factor was that 44 percent of 2005 freshmen were ranked in the top quarter of their high school graduating class. HBU's graduation rate also rose from 42% to 50% in that three-year period.
HBU ranked in the top tier of the Universities-Master's West division, which includes colleges and universities that grant both undergraduate and master's degrees. The top tier includes 63 universities from states including Texas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, New Mexico, Idaho, Utah, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington. An additional 60 schools are listed alphabetically in the third and fourth tiers of rankings in the category.
Colleges and universities are listed and ranked by region based on criteria including peer assessment, class size, freshman retention, graduation rate, SAT/ACT scores and student/faculty ratio. All data is based on the freshman class of 2005. Each indicator is assigned a weight (expressed as a percentage) based on judgments about which measures of quality matter most. Colleges are ranked based on their composite weighted score. Houston Baptist University is an independent Texas Baptist institution founded in 1960 with an enrollment of more than 2,300 students.
