JBU advanced to 17th out of 142 southern universities in this year’s U.S. News & World Report Best Regional Universities ranking, released today. This marks the second year in a row JBU is the top-ranked Arkansas school in its cohort.

“We are pleased that U.S. News has again recognized the academic achievement of
JBU’s undergraduate and graduate programs, which truly is honoring of the quality of JBU faculty, staff and students,” said Dr. Chip Pollard, JBU president. “JBU remains committed to meeting the needs of our students so that they may grow personally, spiritually and professionally, and it is gratifying to have that work recognized by national ranking organizations.”

JBU was promoted to the regional university category last year, debuting at 18th, due to the growth of its graduate programs. Currently, JBU offers 12 graduate degrees in counseling, education, business and visual arts with 630 students enrolled.

For the third consecutive year, more than 400 new traditional undergraduate students enrolled at JBU with 408 students coming from 41 states and 50 countries for the 2017-18 academic year. This year’s incoming class has an average high school GPA of 3.68 and ACT/SAT scores of 26.3 and 1197 respectively.

“JBU’s success is attributed not only to the academic excellence of our faculty, but to the quality and passion of our students,” said Don Crandall, vice president of enrollment. “Each year we are impressed by the caliber of students that arrive at JBU and are grateful when rankings such as these acknowledge the excellence we strive for in our student’s educational experience.”

U.S. News also recognized JBU as a “Best College for Veterans” based on JBU’s ranking among peers and the number of enrolled veterans and active service members.

U.S. News & World Report is widely recognized as a leader in higher education rankings, providing close to 50 types of lists and rankings for a student’s college search. The magazine evaluates graduation and student retention rates, peer assessment, class size, student/teacher ratio, SAT and ACT scores, financial and faculty resources, acceptance rate and alumni giving, among other data points, to determine a university’s ranking. For more information on U.S. News’ ranking methodology, visit www.usnews.com/collegemeth.

John Brown University is a leading private Christian university, training students to honor God and serve others since 1919. Arkansas’ top ranked regional university (U.S. News Best Colleges, 2018), JBU enrolls more than 2,500 students from 41 states and 50 countries in its traditional undergraduate, graduate, online and concurrent education programs. JBU offers more than 40 majors, with top programs including business administration, graphic design, engineering, construction management, counseling, teacher education and nursing.