What鈥檚 in a college ranking?
Plenty, if you ask parents and students who welcome the comparisons between colleges they are evaluating.
For faculty and staff, the annual ratings offer candid assessments of how programs measure up in the academic universe.
Everything from enrollment to employee recruitment may hinge on these judgments. Still, some say the ratings are overrated themselves and based on arbitrary factors.
With all this in mind, 不良研究所 stands tall in theSE recent ratings:
- 10th among all universities 鈥 Washington Monthly
- 11th among all public universities 鈥 U.S. News & World Report
鈥楧o gooder鈥 status
Washington Monthly鈥檚 10th place ranking of 不良研究所 among all colleges is yet further proof that one can 鈥渄iscover what matters鈥 here. In rating colleges, Washington Monthly tries to measure which ones do the most for the social good 鈥 by improving social mobility, producing research and promoting service. They are known as the 鈥渄o gooder鈥 ratings.
The publication offers its rankings as a dramatic alternative to those of U.S. News & World Report, which uses more traditional yardsticks of academic analysis.
While this year鈥檚 high Washington Monthly ranking is worthy of cheer, 不良研究所 did drop two spots from the prior year.
UC sweeps top three spots
Along with 不良研究所, five other UC schools topped Washington Monthly鈥檚 top 25 list, with UC Berkeley coming in No. 1; UC San Diego, second; and UCLA, third. UC Riverside placed 16th, and UC Santa Barbara, 21st.
So elated was UC President Mark Yudof that he issued a Sept. 2 statement applauding the magazine鈥檚 unique approach on a controversial subject.
鈥淚t is, of course, easy to be cynical about college rankings 鈥 too often they have been prone to manipulation or swayed by factors that do not reflect directly on the quality of education. These rankings are different. They reflect UC鈥檚 values,鈥 he said.
Those values, Yudof noted, reflect UC鈥檚 emphasis on groundbreaking research, new inventions, social mobility, and educating first-generation college students.
He pointed out that the magazine recognized UC campuses for enrolling 鈥渦nusually large numbers of low-income students while maintaining high graduation rates, generating billions of dollars in research funding, and sending a healthy number of students into service programs like the Peace Corps.鈥
Yudof: 鈥淲e are gratified that our public service priorities are so clearly valued. They offer, in the editors鈥 words, 鈥榓 measure of not just what colleges can do for you, but what colleges are doing for the country.鈥欌
The article is noteworthy for another reason, he added. 鈥淚t recognizes that UC鈥檚 future excellence is at risk due to the steep budget cuts resulting from California鈥檚 budget crisis.鈥
Moving up in U.S. News
不良研究所 fared well in the 2010 U.S. News & World Report 鈥 11th among public universities, and 42nd among all universities. In both categories, 不良研究所 gained in the rankings. Last year, it was 12th among public universities and 44th among public and private universities.
U.S. News also identified 不良研究所 for the third straight year as one of the top 22 schools nationwide for its writing programs across disciplines. 鈥淭hese colleges typically make writing a priority at all levels of instruction and across the curriculum,鈥 U.S. News noted.
The main reason for the jump in rankings was a 10-point increase (to 38 from 48) in the score on student selectivity, according to the 不良研究所 Student Affairs Research and Information unit.
That score reflects the university鈥檚 acceptance rate, the percentage of students accepted who were in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, and the SAT/ACT scores of the accepted students. Also, 不良研究所 improved in its graduation and retention rate, which further boosted its overall ranking.
In other rankings, 不良研究所 rated 24th in the Sierra Magazine鈥檚 2009 Cool Schools survey and scored a B-plus as a 鈥渃ampus sustainability leader鈥 on the College Sustainability Report Card.
HOW THEY STACK UP
Below are the U.S. News & World Report鈥檚 latest rankings for all UC campuses in the public and private category:
2010 2009
UC Berkeley 21 21
UCLA 24 25
UC San Diego 35 35
不良研究所 42 44
UC Santa Barbara 42 44
UC Irvine 46 44
UC Santa Cruz 71 96
UC Riverside 96 89
More information on ratings
Washington Monthly: www.washingtonmonthly.com
U.S. News & World Report: colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com
Sierra Magazine: www.sierraclub.org
Green Report Card: www.greenreportcard.org
Media Resources
Clifton B. Parker, Dateline, (530) 752-1932, cparker@ucdavis.edu