Gannon University has received a Top-Tier university ranking for the eighth consecutive year in the 2012 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges,” according to a press release from  the Office of Public Relations & Communications.

Gannon also received a “Great Schools, Great Prices” recognition for the sixth time, which honors institutions that offer the best bang for the buck – in other words, the best academic quality for overall cost of attendance for students receiving average levels of need-based financial aid.

Gannon has ranked 52nd out of 183 in the Best Regional Universities category, which ranks institutions that provide a wide range of undergraduate majors and master’s programs  against their brethren in four geographical zones – North, South, Midwest and West.

Last year Gannon was ranked 46th.

Gannon saw improvements in several other areas.

Freshmen who were in the top 25 percent of their high school class increased from 50 to 55 percent.

“We are enrolling more students while continuing to recruit academically talented students who rank at or near the top of their high school classes,” university President Keith Taylor, Ph. D., said in a press release.

– from staff reports