For the 24th consecutive year, Coker has been included in U.S. News & World Report’s rankings as one of America’s best regional schools, and the first year Coker has been ranked as a Best Regional University in the South. U.S. News & World Report’s rankings were released earlier today.

The university was also recognized in three separate 2020 U.S. News & World Report rankings as being a Best Value School in Regional Universities South, a Top Performer on Social Mobility in Regional Universities South, and as being a Regional Universities South school with a diverse student body. In an effort to determine which colleges and universities offer the best value for students, U.S. News & World Report’s Best Value Schools list takes into account both academic quality and cost. U.S. News & World Report’s social mobility rankings are computed from ranking factors assessing graduation rates of federal Pell Grant-awarded students. U.S. News & World Report’s ethnic diversity list is for students that believe studying with people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds is important.

“Seeing Coker recognized in these three categories affirms some of the things we value most, recruiting and educating a diverse student body, making independent higher education accessible and affordable, and, most importantly, contributing to the social mobility of our graduates,” says Dr. Tracy Parkinson, Executive Vice President of Coker University.

U.S. News & World Report defines a regional university as a school that offers a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. The regional university rankings are split into four geographical regions/ lists (North, South, Midwest and West) and two categories/ lists (regional universities and regional colleges). The regional south lists include institutions from 12 states–Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

U.S. News & World Report has been providing education rankings since 1983. The 2020 edition includes data on more than 1000 colleges and universities, with schools grouped into 10 different ranking categories based on their academic missions. Within each category, the sum of weighted, normalized values across 15 indicators of academic quality determines each school's overall score, and by extension its overall rank. The data for this most recent edition of Best Colleges were gathered in the spring and summer of 2019.

For more information about Coker University, formerly Coker College, please visit coker.edu. For more information about applying to Coker, please visit coker.edu/apply.

For more information about the U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 rankings, please visit https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges. For more information about U.S. News & World Report’s best regional colleges in the south, please visit https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-south.