AZUSA, Calif. — Forbes ranks Azusa Pacific University among the best schools in the nation for 2011. The 650 colleges on the list represent the top 20 percent of all undergraduate institutions. The rankings are prepared by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP), a Washington D.C. think tank.
APU’s official overall rank is 322. The CCAP takes a unique approach to ranking colleges by excluding the reputation of the institution as voted on by faculty of other universities. Instead, the main focus is concerns that affect incoming students. Eleven factors that fall into one of five categories are used when ranking colleges.
First, the CCAP measures levels of graduates’ success in their chosen professions after they leave school based on their average salaries. Next, freshman-to-sophomore retention rates and student evaluations on websites such as ratemyprofessor.com are examined to determine student satisfaction with their college experience. The CCAP then looks at the amount of debt students accrue during their college careers, considering the four-year debt load for a typical student borrower and the overall student loan default rate. Finally, they evaluate how many students complete their degree in four years, considering the actual graduation rate and the gap between the average rate and predicted rate, based on characteristics of the school.
For a complete breakdown of APU’s ranking visit: www.forbes.com/colleges/azusa-pacific-university.
