Awards & Rankings

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Awards  |  Rankings  |  Scholarships

Rollins College is Number One in the South

Rollins College ranks number one among 118 regional universities in the South in the annual rankings of “America’s Best Colleges,” released today by U.S. News & World Report. This is the sixth consecutive year that Rollins has been named to the top spot in this category. For 10 consecutive years prior, Rollins had been ranked second among regional universities in the South and first in Florida.  

In the category of “Best Regional Universities” (schools that provide a full range of undergraduate and master’s-level programs), Rollins ranked first in the South, while Elon University, Elon, N.C., ranked second and James Madison University, Harrisonburg, Va., and Stetson University, DeLand, Fla., tied for third. Rollins has been included among the top regional universities since the ranking of the nation’s top schools began in 1987. More...

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Rollins College Named a Best Value College by Princeton Review

Rollins is one of the nation's 50 "Best Value" private colleges and universities, according to The Princeton Review, one of America's most widely known education services and test preparation companies. The Princeton Review teamed with USA TODAY, the nation's most widely read print newspaper, to present its list, "The Princeton Review Best Value Colleges for 2010."

The list features a total of 100 schools—50 public and 50 private colleges and universities. Rollins is one of five colleges and universities recognized in the state of Florida and the only private Florida school to make the list. Of the 50 schools chosen in each category (public and private), the top 10 are ranked 1 to 10, and the remaining 40 are listed in alphabetical order and unranked. More...

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Faculty Internationalization Efforts Have Transformative Impact

Rollins' unprecedented efforts to educate students for global citizenship and responsible leadership has received national recognition. To learn more about Rollins' internationalization initiative, read the feature story in The Chronicle of Higher Education and check out the Rollins News Center for photos and faculty features.

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National Survey of Student Engagement

Last year, the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) found that Rollins is consistently performing above average among private colleges with master’s programs. According to the NSSE, more Rollins students participate in community service, participate in a living learning community, ask questions or contribute to class discussion, and work on a research project with a faculty member. More...

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Rollins Named in "2010 Great Colleges to Work For"

Rollins has been recognized in the Great Colleges to Work For 2010, according to rankings released today by The Chronicle of Higher Education. This is the second consecutive year that Rollins was recognized as a Great College to Work For. The results of the third annual survey were announced in a special supplement of The Chronicle. 

“It is an honor to appear in the same company as schools such as Duke, Emory and Rice,” said Rollins President Lewis M. Duncan. “We salute Rollins’ employees, who make the College such a special place to work.” More...

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Rollins Achieves Carnegie Community Engagement Classification

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has selected Rollins as one of the recipients for the 2008 Community Engagement Classification. More than 4,300 colleges and universities around the nation are able to apply for the classification. Rollins is one of 119 institutions to join the 76 institutions identified in the initial 2006 selection process. Less than five percent (4.4) of the colleges and universities nationwide have achieved this prestigious classification. More...

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Rollins Receives President’s Honor Roll Award for Distinguished Community Service

For the third year in a row, the Corporation for National and Community Service named Rollins College to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll With Distinction for exemplary service efforts and service to disadvantaged youth.

The Community Service Honor Roll is the highest federal recognition a school can achieve for its commitment to service-learning and civic engagement. Honorees for the award were chosen based on a series of selection factors including scope and innovativeness of service projects, percentage of student participation in service activities, incentives for service, and the extent to which the school offers academic service-learning courses. More...

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Rollins Earns Top Community Engagement Award in the State

In 2007, Rollins was recognized by Florida Campus Compact for its efforts to increase civic-mindedness through campus-wide voter registration and education and awareness campaigns. Since winning the inaugural award in 2007, a Rollins' faculty member has continually won the top faculty service-learning teaching award for independent colleges and universities in Florida. Of the 52 colleges that belong to Florida Campus Compact, Rollins was also runner up as the institution in the state of Florida most committed to being an engaged campus.

The Service-Learning Faculty Award recognizes and honors one faculty member in each of three sectors for significant contributions to the institutionalization of community engagement by inspiring a vision for service on the campus and supporting faculty, students, and/or campus-community partnerships. The Engaged Campus Award recognizes institutions of higher education that demonstrate exemplary commitment to being an engaged campus. More...

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Dance Marathon Wins National Award from Children's Miracle Network

In 2007, The Children's Miracle Network named Rollins' Dance Marathon the "Best New Dance Marathon" out of 17 launched nationally and recognized it as the most successful first-year dance marathon ever produced in the event's 13-year history. Members of the Rollins team who produced the event were awarded this national honor at the Children’s Miracle Network Leadership Conference at the Orlando World Center Marriott.

To date, Rollins' Dance Marathon has raised more than $70,000 and every penny raised goes directly to Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children in Orlando and the Shand’s Children’s Hospital at the University of Florida  More...

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Rollins' Office of External and Competitive Scholarships Has Record Success

The Office of External and Competitive Scholarships at Rollins College is dedicated to helping students discover their intellectual passion and assisting them in competing for prestigious national and international undergraduate and graduate fellowships, grants, scholarships and awards.

During the 2008-09 academic year, a record number of 20 students completed 23 applications for competitive awards, scholarships, or fellowships. From this pool, five students and one alumnus were awarded four Fulbright Awards, one American Graduate Fellowship, and one Boren Scholarship. Rollins also had three National Science Foundation honorable mentions, and one Hertz Fellowship semifinalist. Each of these prestigious awards, scholarships, and fellowships draw applicants from top college and universities and are highly competitive. More…

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Fulbright Success Continues at Rollins

In 2009, the Fulbright Program recognized Rollins as the top-producing master’s institution in the nation (based on Carnegie Classification). Last year, four students from the College received Fulbright Awards, ranking Rollins number one out of the 81 master’s institutions whose students received Fulbrights (there are a total of 663 master’s institutions in the country). Since receiving its first Fulbright Award in 1951, Rollins has produced a total of 34 Fulbright Scholars (nine of whom have been named since 2005).

This year, Rollins adds three additional recipients to that list: Andrea Williamson (’07BA 10MBA), Assistant Professor of Anthropology Rachel Newcomb, and Ronald G. and N. Jayne Gelbman Professor of International Business and Professor of Political Science Thomas D. Lairson.

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Junior Awarded Goldwater Scholarship

Justin Wright, a Rollins College junior double-majoring in chemistry and biochemistry, has been named as a 2010 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar. Wright is one of 278 Goldwater Scholars selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,111 mathematics, science, and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of colleges and universities from across the United States.

Among a list of his outstanding accomplishments and activities, Wright is a Dean’s Scholar, serves as treasurer of the Rollins student chapter of the American Chemical Society, is a peer-tutor in the Thomas P. Johnson Student Resource Center (TJ’s) and is founder of the College Academic Bowl. As a TJ’s tutor, Wright mentors other students in all areas of chemistry in effort to be better prepared for future work as a graduate teaching assistant. After graduating from Rollins, Wright plans to earn a Ph.D. in genetics or organic chemistry, conduct RNA research, and eventually teach at the university level. More...

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Recent Graduate Receives NSF GRFP and EAPSI Fellowships

Nick Horton, a physics major and chemistry minor from the Class of 2009, was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program award and the East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) fellowship. 

According to the National Science Foundation, the GRFP program aims to ensure the vitality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the United States and to reinforce its diversity by offering approximately 1,654 graduate fellowships. The Graduate Research Fellowship provides three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based masters or doctoral degrees and is intended for students who are in the early stages of their graduate study. The fellowship also provides a stipend for international travel, as well as financial support to the student’s institution. More…

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Senior Awarded Council of Independent Colleges Graduate Fellowship

The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) announced that Rollins College senior Robert Hoffman, a philosophy and English double-major, has been awarded a 2009 American Graduate Fellowship. Hoffman is a Cornell Scholar, the most prestigious scholarship available at Rollins. He is graduating with honors in May. As a fellow, Hoffman will receive an award of $50,000 for a year of graduate study. This fall, he will enter a doctoral program in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. More...

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Rollins Student Receives Prestigious Boren Scholarship

The Institute of International Education (IIE) announced that Rollins student Fatema Kermalli (Class of 2011) has been chosen as one of 130 students from across the U.S. to receive a 2009 David L. Boren Scholarship for international study.

Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 to U.S. undergraduate students to study in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and are underrepresented in study abroad. Qualifying countries include Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin American, and the Middle East. This year, there were 896 Boren Scholarships applicants, which is nearly a 30 percent increase from 2008. More…

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Junior Earns Prestigious Pickering Fellowship

Shannon Brown, a Rollins College junior majoring in international relations with a minor in Spanish, has been awarded a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship.

As a fellow, Brown will serve four-and-a-half years as a Foreign Service officer with the Department of State. She is particularly interested in democratization, human rights, conflict resolution, and the Middle East. Brown, of New Port Richey, Fla., spent her summer participating in the Rollins Student-Faculty Summer Scholarship Program researching sustainable energy policies in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. She will spend the next year studying abroad in Morocco and Spain. More...