VALDOSTA – Valdosta State University has been named one of the nation’s best colleges by U.S. News and World Report.
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U.S. News and World Report has named Valdosta State University one of the nation’s best colleges and universities.
VSU’s appearance among U.S. News and World Report’s 2026 Best Colleges rankings reflects the university’s promise to reignite its student-first campus culture, create career ready graduates, support students where they are, and promote student success through teaching innovation and excellence.
This is the 41st year U.S. News and World Report has published its annual Best Colleges rankings. This year the publication assessed more than 1,700 colleges and universities on 17 measures of academic quality, including graduation and retention rates, research publication share, social mobility, academic reputation, student-faculty ratio, and borrower debt.
VSU is recognized on seven U.S. News and World Report 2026 Best Colleges lists — Best National Universities, Top Performers on Social Mobility, Top Public Schools, Undergraduate Business Programs, Undergraduate Nursing Programs, Undergraduate Psychology Programs, and Undergraduate Computer Science Programs.
National University: According to U.S. News and World Report, the schools included on the Best National Universities list offer a full range of undergraduate and graduate majors and are committed to producing groundbreaking research.
VSU offers more than 150 academic programs leading to associate, bachelor, master, specialist, and doctoral degrees as well as options to add a certification, minor, endorsement, or certificate to that degree.
VSU believes that learning is best done actively and in collaboration with others. It’s the reason the university places so much emphasis on experiential learning and student-faculty research, including giving students the chance to participate in cutting-edge research projects — searching for renewable energy sources, investigating the role artificial intelligence plays in the creative process, improving rural healthcare access, using artificial reefs to support underwater ecosystems and cultivate bryostatin for use in treating cancer and neurological diseases, regenerating oyster populations, saving the bees, and much more — as early as freshman year.
VSU students receive the individual attention they need to step outside their comfort zone, make an impact, create new knowledge, and promote an innovation-oriented culture.
Top Performers on Social Mobility: VSU is one of the most economically diverse national universities in the United States and is dedicated to enrolling and graduating students with exceptional financial need.
According to U.S. News and World Report, “economically disadvantaged students are less likely than others to finish college, even when controlling for other characteristics.” However, some institutions of higher education — like VSU — are “more successful than others at advancing social mobility by enrolling and graduating large proportions of (economically) disadvantaged students,” which the news organization defines as students who receive Federal Pell Grant funds.
More than half of VSU’s entering students each year qualify for the Pell Grant program.
Undergraduate Nursing Programs: With a focus on serving as a resource for healthcare in South Georgia, VSU’s School of Nursing students gain valuable, real-world experience while serving the needs of underserved populations all year long. Through their various clinical experiences and volunteer efforts, VSU’s nursing students go where they are most needed and help create healthier communities.
The Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce recently awarded VSU a $446,000 Nursing School Grant to help ensure all Georgians, especially those in rural and underserved areas, have access to high quality healthcare. This funding allows VSU’s School of Nursing to train and graduate more practice-ready registered nurses and expand the on-campus Simulated Training Encounters with Patients (STEP) Center by purchasing new, state-of-the-art, high-fidelity manikins. These sophisticated, life-like human patient simulators mimic human anatomy and physiology and realistic patient environments.
VSU offers a traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing and an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing for students who hold a bachelor’s degree in a non-nursing field.
Undergraduate Business Programs: The Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration at VSU offers a challenging curriculum and essential real-life learning experiences that prepare students for a dynamic business environment. Students engage in research with faculty, experience the world through study abroad and service-learning activities, and develop professional skills through internships and award-winning student organizations.
VSU’s Harley Langdale Jr. College of Business Administration is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, placing it among the top five percent of business colleges worldwide. It offers a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting, Applied Economics, Finance, General Business, Management, and Marketing.
Undergraduate Psychology Programs: The College of Humanities and Social Sciences at VSU offers a rigorous and relevant curriculum designed to prepare students for satisfying careers that allow them to have a real impact on the lives of others. Students are able to customize their college experience by engaging in life-enhancing research, transformative study abroad experiences, and impactful experiential learning activities that combine academic instruction with real-world problem solving.
VSU’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences offers a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. Both degree options help students develop the intuition, emotional acuity, and compassion needed to work with individuals of all backgrounds in a variety of situations, from the clinic to the office to the classroom.
Undergraduate Computer Science Programs: The College of Science and Mathematics at VSU prepares students for a career in innovation by offering a computer science program that focuses on problem solving, analysis, design, and implementation of software systems.
VSU’s College of Science and Mathematics offers a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. The degree program is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission of ABET.
VSU also offers a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems.
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