BestColleges.com Ranks Woodbury University Among Nation’s Best Colleges for Hispanic Students

Oct. 22, 2014 - PRLog -- LOS ANGELES (October21, 2014) – In the latest testament to its commitment to diversity and inclusion,  Woodbury University (http://www.woodbury.edu)  today announced that it has been ranked 13^th among the nation’s top 50 colleges for Hispanic students, according to BestColleges.com, a popular online resource for students and parentshttp://www.bestcolleges.com/features/top-50-colleges-for-hispanic-students/.

Noting that Hispanic students represent 28 percent of Woodbury’s total enrollees, the BestColleges.com rankings lauded the university on such metrics as admissions rate, retention rate and graduation rate.  Diversity has been a hallmark of the Woodbury experience since the university’s founding 130 years ago.

Based in Houston, BestColleges.com is an online resource for prospective college students, developed to help them make an educated choice about their future.  Through the use of student surveys, faculty surveys, independent research, ranking systems, and the input of highly credible and authoritative sources, the site has created a database of schools to help students and their families learn more about their best options for higher education.

To assemble its list of the best colleges for Hispanic students, BestColleges.com examined each school's academics, student engagement, HACU (Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities) membership status, percent of Hispanic enrollees, and cultural impact.  School rankings were compiled using the latest information from the IPEDS and College Navigator databases, both of which are maintained by the National Center for Education Statistics.

“This small Southern California university (http://woodbury.edu/), originally a business college, offers multiple fields of study through four schools: business, architecture, design and transdisciplinary studies,” BestColleges.com wrote. “This year, it was awarded accreditation from AACSB (http://www.aacsb.edu/en/accreditation/), making it one of only four schools in the U.S. to earn the honor in 2014.  In addition to student organizations for Latino/as, the university offers special scholarships and financial aid opportunities to Hispanic students.”

“The 2014 BestColleges.com rankings are significant for Woodbury as a member of the Southern California community and as an institution that regards an ethnically diverse student body as a core value,” said Luis Maria R. Calingo, Ph.D, Woodbury University president.  “We are driven by our unique ability to infuse transdisciplinarity, design thinking, entrepreneurship and civic engagement into everything we do – and that extends fully to our participation in HACU.”

According to this year’s U.S. News & World Report rankings, Woodbury has the second highest percentage of international students (20.3 percent) among its 125 Western regional peers and the highest in California.  Among Western regional universities, Woodbury tied for 24^th in campus ethnic diversity, also tying, for 15^th, in California.

About Woodbury University

Founded in 1884, Woodbury University is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in Southern California.  Woodbury offers bachelor's degrees from the School of Architecture, School of Business, School of Media, Culture & Design, and College of Transdisciplinarity, along with a Master of Arts (MA) in Media for Social Justice, Master of Architecture (MArch), Master of Interior Architecture (MIA), Master of Science in Architecture (MSArch), and Master of Leadership.  The San Diego campus offers Bachelor of Architecture and Master of Architecture degrees, as well as an MSArch degree with concentrations in Real Estate Development and Landscape + Urbanism.  Woodbury ranks 15th among the nation’s “25 Colleges That Add the Most Value,” according to Money Magazine.  Visit www.woodbury.edu for more information.

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Ken Greenberg

Edge Communications, Inc.

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