U.S. News Ranks Erskine Among the Best

For the second consecutive year Erskine College is the highest-ranked Christian liberal arts college in the South, according to the annual “America’s Best Colleges” guide released Friday by U.S. News & World Report.

Erskine, a member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU), a group of more than 100 institutions nationwide with clear Christian mission statements, hiring only Christian faculty, is ranked in Tier III of “Best Liberal Arts Colleges” by U.S. News.

Erskine’s U.S. News ranking is the highest of any CCCU school in the South.
“Given our mission statement of Christian commitment and excellence in learning, we are right on the mark,” Erskine President Dr. John Carson said. “We are in the cream of the crop.”

Erskine’s mission statement has been unwavering since the school was founded in 1839, and Carson said, “Our mission is a historic mission. This is not a new direction for us. We are just perfecting the mission that we have historically embraced.”

U.S. News ranks Erskine among the top 160 liberal arts colleges in the nation. In Tier III, Erskine ranked in the top 10 in several of the ranking categories, including lowest percentage of classes with 50 or more students (0 percent). Erskine also ranked in the top 10 schools in Tier III in predicted and actual graduation rates (67 and 71 percent respectively), and in freshmen in the top 10 percent of their high school class (36 percent).

“Students continue to come to Erskine because of its excellent academics, and because of the atmosphere that does not require them to sacrifice their Christian commitment,” Carson said.

“No school in the South combines those two elements, academic excellence and Christian commitment, better than Erskine.”

Copies of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” will be on newstands in September.