moves up in ’U.S. News & World Report’ rankings
rises seven spots overall and five places for public universities
rose from #87 to #80 in this year’s U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of national universities, also moving from #37 to #32 for public universities.
The magazine publishes its rankings of all national universities each fall, and has been in the high 80s for the past several years.
This year, U.S. News updated its methodology to place more emphasis on student outcomes, which helped , said Harvey Stenger, University president. “The rankings tend to heavily favor private schools – the top 20 are privates and the competition is really geared toward the privates – but this year they made some changes that go beyond the reputational ranking.
“ does well in the rankings for student outcomes including its excellent graduation rate, freshman retention rate, and, new this year, Pell-eligible students, which helped us achieve a higher ranking this year,” Stenger said.
Stenger noted that he is proud of the company keeps in national rankings. “I am always amazed when I look at the schools that are around us,” he said. “We’re ranked higher than Michigan State. And not being as identifiable as these schools with big-time athletics programs or 50,000 students – it can be hard to get name recognition.
“We’re always fighting this battle due to our lack of recognition, but in rankings based on student outcomes, we do really well,” he added.
Our students graduate and go on to be successful, Stenger said. “We attract students who come from hard-working backgrounds and access is important for us. Our students move onto great positons. They come with a certain amount of grittiness that, ‘We’re going to make something of ourselves.’
“I think being in the top 50 and #32 public is something we should be proud of,” Stenger said. “Look and see who is in our neighborhood. They are places that everybody recognizes and we’re doing much better even without the name recognition.”
In addition to its ranking on the U.S. News’ national universities list, was #62 on the publication’s Best Value Colleges list, rose from #128 to #108 on its Best Undergraduate Business Program for its School of Management programs, and appeared at #116 on its Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs list for its Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science programs.