Drew University Leaps Into U.S. News’ Top 100 Schools

One of the largest jumps in the country puts Drew at #93 among liberal arts schools

September 2023 – Drew University has skyrocketed in U.S. News & World Report‘s 2024 college rankings.

The publication bumped Drew up 17 spots to 93rd in the country among liberal arts colleges, one of the biggest jumps in the annual rankings.

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“It’s a testament to the quality of our school, our students, our programs, and our people to see such a dramatic increase in these rankings,” said President Hilary L. Link, PhD.

“We just had an amazing undergraduate admissions cycle to welcome an impressive and diverse cohort of new first-year and transfer students to our community. It’s exciting to be recognized for the great work we’re doing here at Drew.”

The rankings are based on U.S. News‘ revamped methodology of 17 indicators of academic quality, putting greater weight on metrics like graduation and retention rates, undergraduate reputation, selectivity, and financial resources for students and faculty.

Drew improved notably in graduation rate performance, which compares undergraduate student graduation rates against the predicted rates; peer assessment, compiled based on surveys of provosts, deans, and administrators across the country; and Pell grant graduation rate, measuring graduation rates of students receiving need-based grants.

In addition to the overall ranking, Drew also improved 19 spots on U.S. News‘ Top Performers on Social Mobility category, all the way to 10th in the country. The metric measures how well colleges advance social mobility by enrolling and graduating a significant number of Pell-eligible students.

“Our mission statement specifically calls on offering a diverse community of learners a challenging and individualized education,” said Link. “That mission is truly lived by providing opportunities to students of a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.”

In the rankings, Drew stood out among local peers as the highest ranked school in New Jersey on both the overall list of national liberal arts colleges and the social mobility ranking.

See all Drew’s accolades here.