Monmouth University climbed 10 places in the U.S. News & World Report annual ranking of “America’s Best Colleges,” released this month. The university ranked 28th out of the 196 institutions that share the category “Regional Universities North.” It was also ranked 13th in the “Best Colleges for Veterans” listing.

U.S. News & World Report first published the “America’s Best Colleges” report in 1983 and has published it annually since 1985. It has become the one of the most recognized and widely quoted surveys of its kind.

According to U.S. News, its ranking methodology focuses on academic excellence, with schools evaluated on hundreds of data points and measures of academic quality, with graduation and freshman retention rates carrying the most weight.

Robert D. McCaig, Ed.D., vice president for enrollment management, said that he is pleased by the university’s placement and continued upward trajectory. In a recent Asbury Park Press report on college rankings, he noted that the university pays particular attention to the U.S. News rankings “because it was the originator, the first to try to quantify college quality, and it is still very well regarded by our market.”

For the 2017–18 academic year, the university has the largest number of full-time undergraduate students in its history. This population increase has been made without sacrificing academic quality, which continues to rise.

In recent years, more and more students from outside of the region have considered Monmouth University, its transformative educational programs, broad extra-curricular offerings, and proximity to the urban centers of New York City and Philadelphia in a prime location only one mile from the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean.

Approximately one-quarter of students in Monmouth’s freshman class are coming to Monmouth from states other than New Jersey, the highest number in the university’s history and positioning Monmouth as a national mid-sized university. Additionally, the university continues to diversify its student body. Approximately 29 percent of the first-year cohort are statistically underrepresented students.

One of the reasons for steady undergraduate enrollment in an era when other colleges and universities in the state are seeing significant declines in population, administrators surmise, is the significant investment the university has made in its physical plant over the last decade. Modern classrooms and laboratories enhance both the learning experience and the vibrant, up-to-date feel of the campus. The university’s science complex is entering the final phase of a multi-year renovation scheduled to be completed by the end of the semester. It will see the science programs at Monmouth being taught in some of the most state-of-the-art facilities in the region.

Monmouth University currently enrolls approximately 4,500 undergraduates and 1,700 graduates and offers 32 undergraduate programs, 24 master’s programs, and two doctoral programs.