Selection Criteria Also Includes Graduation Rates, Campus Diversity, Enrollment
The combination of Wilmington College’s bucolic location and the prominence of agriculture as a popular academic major served to place WC among the top 25 rural colleges in the United States.
College Raptor announced its best colleges rankings this week. It is an organization that builds products designed to assist students and parents with selecting the higher education institution that provides the best fit for students and their interests.
Tyler Hakes, director of marketing for College Raptor, said that, for many students, their “ideal college campus” is away from the city.
“Whether they feel at home in a more rural setting or they’re looking to escape the hustle-and-bustle, there’s a certain serenity that comes with attending a college isolated from the major metropolitan areas,” he said.
“In this ranking, we looked at the best colleges which are located in rural campuses. By definition, these colleges will be outside of major city limits and may even be surrounded by undeveloped land.”
Hakes added that criteria for the rankings also included such factors as graduation rates, campus diversity, endowment per student and other data reported through the National Center for Education Statistics.
Other top 25 rural colleges were: Hamilton College, Clinton, NY; Sewanee-The University of the South, Sewanee, TN; St. Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA; and Saint Johns University, Collegeville, MN.
College Raptor also ranks, among others, the Top 50 Best Colleges in the U.S., as well as best research, liberal arts, private, public, medium-sized, urban and suburban institutions.
