MURFREESBORO – The third time’s a charm, as the saying goes.

For the third consecutive year, Chowan College has been nationally ranked in U.S. News & World Report’s book entitled America’s Best Colleges.

The national news magazine studied more than 1,400 institutions across the United States and ranked Chowan as one of the South’s best third tier, comprehensive colleges (bachelor’s) for the 2004 edition. The volume has become the magazine’s number one bestseller in past years.

Additionally, Chowan ranks ninth out of 86 colleges in its category for campus diversity. This component assists students who are interested in studying with people of different social and cultural backgrounds. Chowan shares this distinction with other institutions in the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Mississippi.

The research ranks institutions into four categories: Best National Universities-Doctoral, Best Liberal Arts Colleges-Bachelor’s, Best Universities-Master’s, and Best Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelor’s. Ranking is determined by analyzing data gathered on peer assessment, average graduation rate, average freshman retention rate, percentage of classes under 20, percentage of classes over 50, student/faculty ratio, SAT/ACT scores of students, freshmen in the top 25 percent of their high school class, acceptance rate of applying students, and alumni giving. The Best Comprehensive Colleges-Bachelor’s category is primarily used for institutions that focus on undergraduate education and offer a range of degree programs in the liberal arts and in the professional fields of business, nursing and education.