WILSON, N.C. — Good news for Barton College comes in threes this fall semester. Barton was again named among the 2014 Best Colleges in the Southeast by “The Princeton Review” and listed in the top tier of “U.S. News & World Report’s” 2014 Best Regional Colleges in the South. The third distinction celebrates the accomplishments of the Barton College School of Nursing’s 2013 Class. This past May’s graduating class passed the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) with ninety-five percent of its graduates successfully completing the NCLEX on their first attempt and the remaining graduate passing the exam on her second attempt this summer.
This good news for Nursing follows on the heels of 100% NCLEX pass rates for the Barton College School of Nursing Classes of 2011 and 2012. Barton’s School of Nursing continues to rank among the best programs in the state, and its graduates are highly sought after in regionally and nationally recognized medical facilities and graduate schools.
“We celebrate the academic achievements of our 2013 nursing class and their hard work, which culminated in all of the class members passing the NCLEX this summer,” said Dr. Norval C. Kneten, president of Barton College. “It is a true testament to the strength of our program and the quality of our professors’ instruction as they prepare these students for such a rigorous examination. The campus community was also pleased to receive the news of Barton’s national recognitions by ‘The Princeton Review’ and ‘U.S. News & World Report.’ These recognitions affirm Barton’s focus on students and our firm commitment to help them achieve their academic goals.”
The 138 colleges The Princeton Review chose for its “Best in the Southeast” designations are located in 12 states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Princeton Review also designated 226 colleges in the Northeast, 124 in the West, and 155 in the Midwest as best in their locales on the company’s “2014 Best Colleges: Region by Region” lists. Collectively, the 643 colleges named “regional best(s)” constitute about 25% of the nation’s 2,500 four-year colleges.
U.S. News & World Report rankings are split into four regions: North, South, Midwest, and West. U.S. News & World Report further explained, “According to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, these schools focus almost entirely on the undergraduate experience and offer a broad range of programs in the liberal arts (which account for fewer than half of all bachelor’s degrees granted) and in fields such as business, nursing and education. They grant few graduate degrees. Because most of the 367 colleges in the category draw heavily from nearby states, they are ranked by region.”
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