For the second straight year, Elizabeth City State University improved its standing in an annual ranking of the nation’s colleges and universities.

ECSU tied for 26th — with Brescia University in Owensboro, Ky. — for the best baccalaureate colleges in the South, according U.S. News and World Report’s 2008 edition of “America’s Best Colleges.”

That’s eight notches higher than where the magazine ranked ECSU in 2007, when it was tied for 34th place with Anderson University in South Carolina, and seven places higher than in 2006, when it was tied for 41st with Belhaven College and Blue Mountain College.

ECSU Chancellor Willie Gilchrist said he was pleased with the university’s latest ranking in the magazine’s report.

“We credit faculty and staff for working so diligently to prepare our students for the future,” he said. “We are offering more of the programs that will place our students in demand — programs like aviation science, biology, education, math and computer science.”

Gilchrist said many of the students graduating from those departments are entering graduate programs where they are excelling. Others have completed graduate school and gone on to rewarding careers, he said.

U.S. News and World Report, which conducts the annual review of the nation’s 1,400 colleges and universities, considers baccalaureate colleges those that focus primarily on undergraduate education and grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in the liberal arts. The magazine ranks 319 baccalaureate colleges, dividing them into four regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.

The other three categories include national universities, liberal arts colleges and universities-master’s. Harvard was this year’s top school in the national university category; Amherst and Williams colleges tied for first among liberal arts colleges; and Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla. was the top school in the university-master’s category in the South.

To compile the rankings, the magazine compiles data in seven broad areas and then compares them to each college or university in each category. The seven areas of comparison are: peer assessment; graduation and retention rate; faculty resources, including class size; student selectivity, including average admission test scores of incoming students; financial resources; alumni giving. For national universities and liberal arts colleges, the rankings also compare graduation rates.

In its latest rankings, U.S. News and World Report ranks ECSU the third best public baccalaureate college or university in the South. For the fourth consecutive year, ECSU trailed only the University of South Carolina-Aiken, which finished 23rd, and Winston-Salem State University, which finished 24th, among public baccalaureate colleges.

For the second straight year, a private college, Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark., was ranked the top baccalaureate college in the South.

Among North Carolina colleges and universities, ECSU finished ahead of Methodist University, Belmont Abbey College, Mars Hill College and Montreat College in the 50 baccalaureate colleges ranked in the South. Colleges rated ahead of ECSU among ranked schools included High Point College, Lenoir-Ryhne College and Catawba College.

Gilchrist said he feels the ratings are important for both prospective students and parents trying to determine which college or university offers the best value.

“The scores from America’s Best Colleges are significant,” he said. “We realize that parents and prospective students consult the report in their search for a university where the students will enroll.”

According to U.S. News and World Report, in-state tuition at ECSU for 2007-08 was $3,354, while out-of-state rates were $12,235. ECSU’s fall 2007 acceptance rate was 71 percent, the magazine reported.

“ECSU continues to offer one of the most affordable packages in the state of North Carolina,” Gilchrist said. “We want parents and students to remember a great college education is within reach at ECSU.”

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