BOILING SPRINGS, NC - This year, the U.S. News & World Report selected Gardner-Webb University as one of America’s Best Universities. These best-known rankings have been compiled since 1983 by the magazine. Rankings are based on a combination of statistics provided by institutional researchers and surveys of university faculty and staff members. Other assessments are as follows:

• Peer assessment: a survey of the institution's reputation among presidents, provosts, and deans of admission of other institutions
• Retention: six-year graduation rate and first-year student retention rate
• Student selectivity: standardized test scores of admitted students, proportion of admitted students in upper percentiles of their high-school class, and proportion of applicants accepted
• Faculty resources: average class size, faculty salary, faculty degree level, student-faculty ratio, and proportion of full-time faculty
• Financial resources: per-student spending
• Graduation rate performance: difference between expected and actual graduation rate
• Alumni giving rate

All these factors are combined according to statistical weights determined by U.S. News to select America’s Top Colleges.