Two Charlotte-area colleges named among best 10 in North Carolina
A pair of Charlotte-area colleges are among the best schools in the state, according to WalletHub’s 2023’s Best Colleges and University Rankings report released this week.
Davidson College and Queens University of Charlotte landed in the top 10 — No. 3 and No. 7, respectively — after WalletHub, a personal finance website, used 30 key measures that ranged from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary.
WalletHub set out to compare colleges and universities to determine the top-performing school at the lowest possible costs to undergraduates, according to a news release.
“On average, tuition and room and board at a four-year college costs around $23,000-$52,000 per year. It varies depending on the school’s public or private status and whether it’s in-state. For those prices, students want to know they are getting a good deal,” WalletHub said in its release.
Davidson College President Doug Hicks said he was glad to see qualities that make the school attractive are recognized outside of its campus.
“Students who enroll at Davidson join a community of smart, driven and kind people,” Hicks told The Charlotte Observer. “We are among a small number of colleges that do not include loans in our financial aid packages, and that helps us recruit students from all backgrounds.”
Duke University is the No. 1 ranked university in the state, according to WalletHub, which compared more than 900 higher-education institutions in the U.S.
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill is No. 2, North Carolina State University is No. 4 and University of North Carolina-Wilmington is No. 5. Rounding out the 10 schools are Meredith College in Raleigh (6), Salem College in Winston-Salem (8), Elon University in Elon (9) and Catawba College in Salisbury (10).
The rankings
In addition to finishing No. 3 overall, Davidson College ranked second in the state in admission rate, graduate rate and post-attendance median salary. It ranked fourth in student-faculty ratio and 30th in on-campus crime.
Queens University ranked second in student-faculty ratio, sixth in post-attendance median salary, 13th in admission rate and 14th in on-campus crime.
Duke ranked first in admission rate, student-faculty ratio, gender and racial diversity, post-attendance median salary and 20th in on-campus crime. Duke was North Carolina’s top-ranked university nationwide, too, at No. 10 of the 913 schools included.
Here’s how other North Carolina schools ranked nationally in Wallethub’s rankings:
▪ No. 10: Duke
▪ No. 39: University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
▪ No. 71: Davidson College
▪ No. 76: North Carolina State University
▪ No. 278: University of North Carolina-Wilmington
▪ No. 315: Meredith College
▪ No. 344: Queens University of Charlotte
▪ No. 356: Salem College
▪ No. 370: Elon University
▪ No. 392: Catawba College
▪ No. 394: North Carolina Wesleyan College
▪ No. 404: Appalachian State University
▪ No. 479: William Peace University (Raleigh)
▪ No. 494: University of North Carolina Asheville
▪ No. 503: University of North Carolina Charlotte
Best in other rankings
Both Davidson College and Queens University were ranked among the region’s best in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings. U.S. News recognized Queens University of Charlotte as the ninth-best overall university in the southern region, moving up six places from a year ago.
Davidson College came in at No. 15 on the list of Best National Liberal Arts Colleges.
U.S. News ranked Belmont Abbey College as the top institution for undergraduate teaching in the South. Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, came in at No. 41 on the list of Best Regional Universities in the South. Catawba College in Salisbury was ranked No. 5 on the list of Best Regional Colleges in the South. UNC Charlotte was ranked 219th in the U.S. News’ Best National Universities list.
This story was originally published October 19, 2022 at 9:11 AM.
