Undergraduate Admissions

Gannon University is ranked in the Top Tier in its region for the fifth consecutive year and is listed as a Best Value for the fourth consecutive year in the new edition of U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges.

“Gannon is honored to be ranked again as a ‘Top Tier’ university for the fifth straight year and a ‘Best Value’ university for the fourth consecutive year,” said Gannon University President Antoine M. Garibaldi, Ph.D. “These rankings are a tribute to the high quality and dedication of Gannon’s students, faculty, staff, and alumni.”

Overall, Gannon is ranked 40th out of 171 schools in the northern region of the “Best Universities – Master’s” category, which is defined by the guide as “institutions that provide a full range of undergraduate and master’s programs.” The northern region includes Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, D.C., and the New England states.

Gannon’s ranking is five places higher than last year’s ranking in the America’s Best Colleges guide.

America’s Best Colleges’ List of Best Values
For the fourth consecutive year, Gannon is also ranked as one of the guide’s “Great Schools, Great Prices.” Only 15 of the 171 schools ranked in the entire northern region of the “Best Universities – Master’s” category are selected as “Best Values” Universities. According to the guide, such “Best Values” are based upon an institution’s academic quality as well as its “net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of need-based financial aid.”

Of the 15 “Best Values” Universities in its region, Gannon was tied for second – at 83 percent – in terms of the percentage of students receiving grants based on financial need. In addition, Gannon was ranked the fourth lowest for tuition costs among those schools in terms of a student’s average tuition cost after receiving grants based on need.

Gannon’s overall rankings improved in several categories, most notably in percentage of freshmen in the top 25 percent of their high school class. On this key criterion, Gannon ascended from 44 percent in last year’s guide to 53 percent in this year’s.

Other criteria on which Gannon’s rankings improved were:

• Peer assessment score – From 2.7 to 2.8.

• Percentage of classes under 20 students – From 54 to 57 percent.

• SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentiles – From 920-1,120 to 930-1,160.

• Acceptance rate – This criterion is a key measure of an institution’s selectivity of freshmen. (Gannon’s acceptance rate decreased from 86 percent in last year’s guide to 83 percent in this year’s.)

Each school is assigned an overall score that is also based on criteria such as student-to-faculty ratio, percentage of classes over 50 students, percentage of faculty who are full-time, and average rates for freshman retention, graduation, and alumni giving.