Radford impresses on The Economist's first-ever college rankings

Radford University can chalk up another accolade thanks to an appearance on The Economist's first-ever college ranking, where it was listed as one of the 10 most valuable educations in Virginia.

The magazine sought to identify the value of a given school's education. To do so, the magazine analyzed a student's projected earnings against her or his actual earnings during the decade after graduation.

As it turns out, Radford University delivers. The university's alumni make an average of $3,983 more than their expected earnings if they had attended another school.

That puts Radford at No. 154 on a list of more than 1,300 colleges and universities around the country.

Nearly 40 institutions in the Commonwealth of Virginia made the list. Radford came in at number seven and was joined in the top 10 by schools such as Virginia Tech, George Mason, James Madison and Washington & Lee.

The Economist ranking differs from a majority of college rankings by controlling for school size, demographics and location, putting all schools from mid-sized rural public universities to the Ivy League on the same playing field.

The ranking charts earnings for the decade after graduation for all students who applied for federal financial aid. Because students who continued on to advanced graduate work - or law or medical school - were likely just finishing school at the end of this decade, typically high earning individuals were not captured in the data, providing The Economist a more accurate value of the worth of an institution's bachelor's degree.

Radford University is no stranger to national recognition. The university has appeared on The Princeton Review's "Best Colleges and Universities in the Southeast" list annually since 2008 and the "Best 295 Business School" list since 2012. U.S. News & World Report has named Radford to the "Best Regional Universities – South" list annually since 2013.