toledoblade.com --

BOWLING GREEN - First-year students at Bowling Green State University will gather this morning for their first glimpse at college life - and for some serious soul-searching with one another.

The youths, fresh from reading the assigned book The Kite Runner, will be talking values and more values over the next three days in a first-year program known as the BGeXperience - an offering that BGSU officials have been touting for years as unique among the nation's colleges.

Now entering its fourth year, the program has received its first national recognition as a program to look for in the annual U.S. News & World Report ranking of "America's Best Colleges," which is available online today and hits newsstands Monday.

"My guess is among the constellation of programs that we have, the BGeXperience has really experienced national attention," said director Don Nieman about the magazine's mention of the program. "I think we've been building at this."

For the third year, the magazine also mentioned BGSU in a listing for learning communities, which combine residential life with academics. Jodi Webb, who sits on BGSU's advisory board for the learning communities, said leaders are constantly evaluating and assessing the offerings to make them more innovative.

BGSU officials said they were thrilled about the dual special designations this year. No other area colleges or universities were highlighted in the magazine's list of outstanding academic programs, which includes those for internships, senior-year programs, service learning, study abroad, writing, and undergraduate research offerings for students.

For first-year programs, BGeXperience shared the spotlight with Ohio State University and the University of Michigan among a list of more than 40 institutions. Michigan and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, were ranked with BGSU in a list of 25 named learning communities.

BGSU was ranked in the third tier among the nation's best colleges again this year, while the University of Toledo was again in the magazine's fourth tier. Harvard and Princeton once again tied for first place as the nation's top universities.

Ohio Northern University was ranked No. 5 among comprehensive colleges in the Midwest. In that same category, Bluffton University was 34th; Defiance College tied for 47th, and Lourdes College was placed in the fourth tier.

Adrian College was in the fourth tier for liberal arts colleges. Heidelberg College tied for 34th place in the master's degree category for the Midwest region, while the University of Findlay was in the third tier of that category, and Tiffin University was recognized for its business program.

The magazine uses seven indicators to rank the colleges, including peer assessment, student retention, student selectivity, and alumni giving, among others.

At BGSU, officials this year are including all first-year students in their first-year program, which to date has attracted $2.5 million in outside donations. Sessions begin today and end Sunday afternoon with an address from President Sidney Ribeau. New this year will be presentations by Bowling Green city officials to promote "town and gown" cooperation.

Students will spend some time meeting with peer mentors and fall-semester instructors, who will incorpore the idea of values into upcoming teachings. The students will then break into small groups and explore their own value beliefs.

"These are very open-ended scenarios, where there's no right answer," Mr. Nieman said. "Our whole purpose is to get students thinking about 'What are my values?' and 'Why do I have that value?'●"

Contact Kim Bates at:
kimbates@theblade.com
or 419-724-6074.

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