Woodbury University Gets High Marks from U.S. News & World Report for Global Student Body, Welcome Mat for Veterans, Diversity

Ranks 2nd in Percentage of International Students and 18th Best for Veterans - 56th Overall Among Western Regional Universities. End Quote

Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease) October 02, 2014 - Woodbury University (www.woodbury.edu) today announced that it placed 56th among Western regional universities in U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings of colleges and universities.
http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/woodbury-university-1343.

According to the publication, Woodbury has the second highest percentage of international students (20.3 percent) among its 125 Western regional peers and the highest in California. The university is ranked as the 18th Best College in the West for veterans of the armed services, a relatively new category.

Among Western regional universities, Woodbury tied for 24th in campus ethnic diversity, also tying, for 15th, in California; tied for 29th in economic diversity in the region, again tying, for 12th, in California; and tied for 46th in freshman retention rate in the region and ranked 28th in California.

"The 2014 U.S. News & World Report rankings affirm our strategic focus on diversity and inclusion," said Luis Maria R. Calingo, Ph.D, Woodbury University president. "Schools in the West are the most diverse in the nation, and as we attract students from around the world, we are proud that our student body is economically and ethnically diverse as well.

Woodbury likewise warmly embraces veterans, and the rankings underscore our proactive efforts to thoroughly integrate into our educational program those who have served in the military.

"We are pleased that Woodbury continues to be recognized for educational programs that are distinctive," Calingo said. "We are building a much stronger liberal education component into our program because we seek to produce not only competent professionals, but also productive, socially responsible members of society. We remain driven by our unique ability to infuse transdisciplinarity, design thinking, entrepreneurship and civic engagement into everything we do."

"Woodbury University is a small, private institution in Southern California, just a few miles north of Los Angeles," the publication reports. "Students at Woodbury University can pursue graduate and undergraduate degrees in the Schools of Architecture; Business; Media, Culture, and Design; and the College of Transdisciplinarity. In the 1990s, Woodbury University also established a campus in San Diego, which offers an undergraduate architecture degree and two master's programs in real estate development and design in landscape and urbanism. Students are required to complete at least one internship before they graduate, and the Careers and Alumni Office can help them secure one with services such as cover letter critiques and job boards." The complete report is available from U.S. News for a fee.

First published in 1983, the U.S. News ranking system uses quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality.

Schools are categorized by their mission as defined by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2010. Woodbury is classified as a Regional University. Institutions in this category offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. Regional Universities are further divided and ranked in four geographical groups: North, South, Midwest and West. U.S. News then gathers data from each college on up to 16 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects its judgment about how much a measure matters. Finally, the colleges and universities in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score.

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.

Media Contact:
Ken Greenberg
Edge Communications, Inc.
(323) 469-3397
ken ( @ ) edgecommunicationsinc dot com.

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