Hollins University has been named the number 23 “Top Performer on Social Mobility” among National Liberal Arts Colleges by U.S. News & World Report for its 2022-23 Best Colleges rankings.

The “Top Performers on Social Mobility” ranking measures the extent schools enroll and graduate students who receive federal Pell Grants.

U.S. News annually evaluates more than 1,450 colleges and universities on up to 17 measures of academic quality to determine its Best Colleges. This year, Hollins is ranked number 102 overall in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category, and is also cited by the publication as an “A-plus School for B Students.”

“To judge the level of quality at each institution on the ‘A-plus Schools for B Students’ lists, U.S. News first examined two variables: the school’s performance in the 2022-23 edition of the Best Colleges rankings and the average freshman retention rate,” the publication reported. “Since the U.S. News rankings are a gauge of excellence, schools in National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges all had to first be ranked in the top three-fourths of their 2022-2023 Best Colleges ranking categories to be eligible for the A-plus Schools for B Students ranking list.” In addition, U.S. News noted, “colleges had to admit a meaningful proportion of students who didn’t get straight As in high school.”

“For nearly 40 years, the Best Colleges methodology has continuously evolved to reflect changes in the higher education landscape and the interests of prospective students,” said Kim Castro, editor and chief content officer at U.S. News. “Guiding that evolution is U.S. News‘ mission of providing useful data and information to prospective students and their families to help with one of life’s biggest decisions.”

The U.S. News 2022-2023 Best Colleges rankings were released to the public on September 12.

Hollins University is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduates according to The Princeton Review. The education services company profiles and recommends Hollins in the new edition of its annual college guide, The Best 388 Colleges: 2023 Edition.

The Princeton Review chose the colleges for the book based on data it annually collects from surveys of 2,000 college administrators about their institutions’ academic offerings. For its selection of profiled schools in the book, the company also reviews data from its surveys of college students attending the schools. Only about 14% of America’s 2,700 four-year colleges are profiled in the book.

“We salute Hollins for its outstanding academics, and its many other impressive offerings. We’re delighted to recommend it as an ideal choice for students searching for their ‘best-fit’ college,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief and lead author of The Best 388 Colleges.

In the profile on Hollins, students the company surveyed called the school “academic and forward-thinking” and said it creates “a positive intellectual standard that makes me and my peers want to really grow and push our education further.” They noted that faculty are “absolutely the backbone of this school and have such a passion to support their students in any way they can, both academically, emotionally, and just in life.” In addition, students surveyed praised the “Culture of Care implemented on campus, which makes respect and empathy for one another a conscious mindset throughout all of campus.” They described Hollins as “a safe place to express yourself” and said the student body fosters “a warm and friendly environment where everyone feels like they belong.”

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the book hierarchically, from 1 to 388. However, the book has 50 categories of ranking lists. Each list names the top 25 schools (of those in the book) in its category. The ranking lists are tallied based on The Princeton Review’s surveys of 160,000 students at the 388 schools in the book. The company’s 85-question student survey asked students to rate their colleges on dozens of topics and report on their campus experiences.

Hollins appears on the following ranking lists in The Best 388 Colleges:

• #20 Best College Library (Based on students’ answers to the survey question, “How do you rate your school’s library facilities?”)
• #24 Most Politically Active Students (Based on students’ answers to the survey question, “My level of political awareness is: Very High, High, Average, Low, or Very Low.”)

The Best 388 Colleges and its rankings have been featured on NBC’s Today more than a dozen times and referenced by news outlets ranging from NPR and The Wall Street Journal to The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Hollins University is among the Best Colleges and Universities by Academic Stewardship, according to the college ranking website AcademicInfluence.com

Composed of academics and data scientists, Academic Influence.com ranks Hollins ninth in the country in the category.

“Inspired by Malcolm Gladwell, who for years now has criticized conventional college rankings for misrepresenting what’s good and valuable in education, we invented the Academic Stewardship metric to reward schools for making the most of what they have,” the website states. “Specifically, Academic Stewardship asks how effectively schools manage their financial resources (using the money they have responsibly without waste) and human resources (doing their best to help students, faculty, and administration to flourish) to gain the influence that makes them academically excellent. Schools that are exemplary in Academic Stewardship are doing everything in their power to help students and faculty achieve their full potential.”

“…we show why the smart use of an institution’s resources through committed investment in students who need more from their school is a better measure of excellence,” adds Jed Macosko, academic director of AcademicInfluence.com and Wake Forest University professor of physics. “This is why we want to bring attention to academic stewardship and the schools that exemplify this virtue.”

AcademicInfluence.com says attending a school with strong academic stewardship has several benefits:

• A clear reason for why students are at the school in the first place. “The schools in this ranking are financially efficient and academically rigorous. By avoiding frills, these schools take the most direct path to accomplishing their mission of educating students.”
• Valuing character over prestige and self-indulgence. “A school that’s a good steward of its resources doesn’t instill shame in its students over what they are missing, but rather pride in what they have and making the most of it.”
• Avoiding the spoiled-student syndrome. “It’s easy to think that offering students endless options and opportunities will enrich their time at school in every way. But spoiling people – whether in business, sports, or academics – has the opposite effect, causing people to take their advantages for granted and in the end achieving less than they might otherwise….”
• The best schools vs. the schools that help students be their best. “These schools pay attention to their students, hoping that any glory goes to them rather than to the school.”
• Emphasizing development over talent and achievement. “Colleges exemplifying academic stewardship emphasize student growth and development, ensuring that the schools are doing everything in their power to help students reach their full potential and thereby become their best selves.”

AcademicInfluence.com concludes, “Colleges and universities deserve to be recognized when they do more with less. It’s impressive when a large wealthy school can spend money lavishly on expensive buildings and programs. But it’s even more impressive when a small school with limited means is able to train and inspire students that the larger wealthier schools tend to ignore.”

Hollins University is ranked #16 among the country’s Top Performers on Social Mobility and #32 on the list of Best Value Schools, according to the new U.S. News 2022 Best Colleges.

Hollins received both rankings in the National Liberal Arts Colleges category.

To determine the Top Performers on Social Mobility, U.S. News & World Report explains that it looks at “colleges that enrolled and graduated large proportions of economically disadvantaged students who were awarded federal Pell Grants. The vast majority of these federal grants are awarded to students whose adjusted gross family incomes are under $50,000.”

The Best Value Schools ranking “weighs a college’s academic quality alongside the net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid,” the guide, now in its 37th edition, reports. “The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal. Only schools ranked in or near the top half of their categories are included because U.S. News considers the most significant values to be among colleges that are above average academically.”

Hollins is ranked #105 overall in the National Liberal Arts category, and is also cited as an A+ School for B Students.

Hollins University is one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduates according to the 2022 edition of The Princeton Review’s The Best 387 Colleges.

Hollins is also featured in two of the “Great List” categories the education services company curates: “Most Politically Active Students” and “Great College Theater.” Each list names 16 to 29 colleges in alphabetical (not ranked) order.

In the guide’s profile of the university, students praise Hollins as “a great place for people who want life experience” that provides “a lot of incredible opportunities for anyone willing to take them.” They also cite internship and study abroad opportunities as “exceptional” and describe faculty as “amazing, talented, dedicated, and compassionate.” The Princeton Review adds, “The alumni network is similarly solid, and many students land jobs and internships through previous graduates.”

“We salute Hollins for its outstanding academics and we are genuinely pleased to recommend it to prospective applicants searching for their ‘best-fit’ college,” said Rob Franek, The Princeton Review’s editor-in-chief and lead author of The Best 387 Colleges.

Only about 14% of America’s 2,700 four-year colleges are profiled in the guide. The Princeton Review chooses the colleges based on data it annually collects from administrators at hundreds of colleges about their institutions’ academic offerings. The company also considers data it gathers from its surveys of students at the colleges who rate and report on various aspects of their campus and community experiences.

The Princeton Review does not rank the colleges in the guide from 1 to 387.

The Best 387 Colleges is the 30th anniversary edition of the book. It has been featured on NBC’s Today more than a dozen times, and referenced by reporters in publications ranging from Inside Higher Ed. to The Wall Street Journal.

The college ranking and review platform Niche has named Hollins University number one in the category “Best Colleges with No Application Fee in Virginia,” number three among the “Best Small Colleges in Virginia,” and ninth in the categories “Best Colleges in Virginia” and “Colleges with the Best Academics in Virginia.”

In its 2022 Best Colleges Rankings, Niche also cites Hollins as the seventh-best women’s college in America.

To create the college rankings, Niche combines data from sources such as the U.S. Department of Education with user input – reviews and ratings from current students, alumnae/i, and parents – to analyze factors such as academics, the campus environment, and value.

Luke Skurman, CEO and founder of Niche, adds, “Our team recognizes that the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as new variants such as the delta variant arise, will continue to have an outsize impact on the college admissions process this year. We wanted to make sure our 2022 rankings reflect the current reality and provide unique and comprehensive insights into top-notch institutions across the country.”

View Hollins’ complete profile on Niche.