Again this year, Catawba College is included in Forbes' "America's 650 Top Colleges" list. It is one of only 19 North Carolina public and private institutions included in this annual listing and is ranked 542 among the 650 best undergraduate colleges.

The Forbes' rankings were prepared by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and focus on the things that are most important to students, including quality of teaching, great career prospects, high graduation rates and low-levels of debt.

The rankings are based on five general categories: post graduate success (32.5%), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence; student satisfaction (27.5%), which includes professor evaluations and freshman to sophomore year retention rates; debt (17.5%), which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates; four-year graduation rate (11.25%); and competitive awards (11.25%), which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships like the Rhodes, the Marshall and the Fulbright or go on to earn a Ph.D.

For a complete listing of all colleges making the 2012 Forbes' list visit: www.forbes.com/top-colleges.

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