Samford University is ranked in the top 100 best values among private universities in the nation in the December 2010 issue of Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. Samford ranks No. 80 on the Kiplinger’s list as the only Alabama private university included.
Kiplinger’s said it based its selection on indicators of high quality such as small class size, a high achieving incoming class, retention rates and graduation rates as well as affordability.
“Once again, a national ranking has affirmed Samford’s growing prominence as an affordable option for a rigorous education,” said Samford President Andrew Westmoreland. “The indicators that Kiplinger’s used for their rankings are all things that are high priorities for us at Samford and contribute to our continuing success as one of the top tier national doctoral research universities in the U.S.”
Samford’s faculty-to-student ratio is 1-to-12 and its retention rate of freshman-to-sophomore students is 86.1 percent. The class of 2010 had an average Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of 1149 and an ACT college entrance exam score of 26, both above the national average.
Samford recently moved up 12 spots in the top tier of national doctoral research universities in the prestigious U.S. News & World Report college rankings. It also has been rated as one of the 50 “Best Values” nationally among private universities by The Princeton Review and USA Today.
Samford enrolled a record 4,715 students from 47 states and 16 foreign countries this fall. It has been Alabama’s largest private university for many years.