The University of Virginia was named the No. 2 public university in the country – up one spot from last year’s No. 3 ranking – in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 college rankings. The University of MI and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill rounded out the top five public institutions. Louisiana Tech landed at No. 202 out of the over 230 institutions to achieve Tier One status on the 2017 Best Colleges list.
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Members of the UGA administration credit the No. 18 ranking to the success of several university statistics, including its first-year retention rate – which rose from 94 to 95 percent – and six-year graduation rate – which remained at an all-time high of 85 percent, according to a UGA press release. Louisiana Tech’s overall score increased by six points over a year ago, primarily as a result of a rise in its peer assessment score and freshman retention rate.
U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings for graduate programs are issued in the spring. “The foundation of these achievements is our faculty and staff who have embraced our vision for the future and dedicated themselves to serving our campus community”.
In the survey released Tuesday, Hopkins finished as the 10th best national university.
This year, Northwestern University stayed in the same spot as last year, tied for 12th with the California Institute of Technology.
“This is a noteworthy moment for Villanova, because US News & World Report uses the Carnegie Classification for its annual “Best Colleges” ranking”. Columbia is tied for fifth place with Stanford University in the U.S. News Best Colleges rankings.
The national universities category is based on academic excellence and includes higher education institutions that offer a variety of undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees and emphasize research.
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The eagerly awaited U.S.News rankings assess almost 1,800 colleges and universities nationwide on 16 critera that include academic excellence, academic reputation, student selectivity, faculty resources, graduation and retention rates, financial resources and alumni giving. Scores for each measure are weighted to determine a final overall score.
