Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Annual U.S. News & World Report Best College ratings
PRINCESS ANNE, MD – (Aug. 17, 2010) – Peers continue to rank the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in the upper tier of historically black institutions, according to the latest U.S News & World Report survey of colleges and universities.
UMES is listed at 28th among 80 institutions that meet the federal definition of a historically black college or university, improving three spots over its 2009 ranking by the magazine.
U.S. News began surveying presidents, academic officers and admissions deans at HBCUs four years ago to gauge how they viewed what the magazine calls an appealing option for applicants of all races.
Many HBCUs, the magazine notes, now actively recruit Hispanic, international and white students in addition to the African-American high school grads heading to college in record numbers.
UMES fits that profile. This past spring, when the magazine conducted the survey, 75 percent of UMES students were African-Americans, 14 percent were white, five percent were foreign and two percent were Hispanic.
Just under 4,300 students were enrolled at UMES during the spring semester, a number that has been rising steadily since Dr. Thelma B. Thompson became president in 2002.
Expansion of the curriculum – especially in the allied health fields – has been one of Thompson’s priorities. She also places an emphasis on testing and accreditations, which have helped the university improve its student-retention rate.
Alumni and university supporters have responded to those positive trends by making record-breaking contributions to a $14 million fund-raising campaign on schedule to end in 2011.
UMES ranked among the top 16 state-supported HBCUs in the latest survey, joining Morgan State University in Baltimore.
This week, UMES launched a new doctoral program in pharmacy – its first professional school – making it one of six HBCUs in the nation to hold that distinction. Four of those schools – Florida A&M, Howard, Hampton and Xavier of New Orleans – are in the upper tier with UMES.
Highlights of the college rankings will be published in the September issue of U.S. News & World Report, available on newsstands Aug. 31.
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Bill Robinson, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-621-2355. wrobinson3@umes.edux
