Did You Know?
Billy Bob Thornton used Benton and Saline County as backdrops for his movie Slingblade in 1996.
Universities
The Metro Little Rock region is home to several universities that continue to increase their enrollments and expand their programs each year. For instance, the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway had a 12.9% increase in total Fall 2005 enrollment over Fall 2004 enrollment. Total Graduate level students increased 37.3% over Fall 2004. UCA's Honors College has been perceived in the state and nationally as a highly innovative and model program.
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) is expanding its Systems Engineering program to offer Mechanical and Electrical engineering options. It has also received a $5 million commitment toward its new CyberCollege building project.
The Metro Little Rock Region's Hendrix College was ranked in the 2006 "America's Best Colleges" issue of the U.S. News & World Report among the country's top liberal arts colleges in the nation. This is the 18th consecutive year that Hendrix has been listed among the nation's top colleges.