GREENVILLE, PA – Thiel College has been listed as a best comprehensive college in U.S. News & World Report's America’s Best Colleges 2007 guide, which will be released Monday, Aug. 21.

Thiel College was named to the top tier of the northern comprehensive colleges category. Comprehensive colleges are described as institutions that focus on undergraduate education and offer a range of degree programs in the liberal arts, which account for fewer than half of their bachelor’s degrees, and in professional fields such as business, nursing, and education. There are 320 comprehensive colleges, ranked within four regions: North, South, Midwest, and West.

As a top northern comprehensive college, Thiel shares company with other Pennsylvania schools such as Mercyhurst, Grove City, Elizabethtown, Messiah, Cedar Crest, Wilson, Alvernia, Mount Aloysius and Delaware Valley colleges and University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.

Tying at 31st with Bay Path College (Mass.) and Concordia College (N.Y.), Thiel earned an overall score of 37.

U.S. News & World Report arrived at the rankings by evaluating peer assessments, student retention rates (six-year graduation rate and freshman rate), graduation rates, percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students, percentage of classes with 50 or more students, student/faculty ratio, percentage of full-time faculty, SAT/ACT scores, freshmen high school percentage rankings, acceptance rates financial resources and alumni giving.

Highlights of the college rankings are scheduled for publication in the Aug. 28 edition of U.S. News & World Report magazine, available for newsstand purchase on Monday, Aug. 21 – the same day that the America’s Best Colleges guidebook also is available.