Syracuse slips 7 spots in US News rankings of colleges
UPDATED: Sept. 14, 2011, 10:34 p.m.
CORRECTION: In this article, SU’s ranking last year was misstated. U.S. News & World Report listed SU as No. 55 in its 2011 ranking of Best Colleges.
Tuesday’s release of U.S. News and World Report’s 2012 edition of Best Colleges ranks Syracuse University as the 62nd best undergraduate school in the country. The data reveals a drop from the 2011 list, in which SU was ranked No. 55.
SU is tied with Worcester Polytechnic Institute, University of Georgia, Southern Methodist University, Northeastern University and Purdue University for the No. 62 ranking.
Ranks are calculated from a number of data sources including tuition, total enrollment, the fall 2010 acceptance rate, six-year graduation rate and average freshman retention rate.
In a message posted on SU News Tuesday, Chancellor Nancy Cantor said the rankings remind the SU community of the ‘volatility and mystery’ surrounding the methodology U.S. News and World Report uses to rank colleges. She said the rankings don’t capture the direction SU is taking as it tries to establish a secure foothold in what is often referred to as a ‘new normal’ world.
Cantor could not be reached to comment.
SU ranks No. 8 for best undergraduate business program for entrepreneurship in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management. For high school counselor rankings, SU’s undergraduate program sits at No. 42. SU also ranks No. 48 as a best value school, which is measured by how many students receive need-based grants and the average discount of the total cost for students.
The graduate program at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs is ranked No. 1 according to the data — one spot above Harvard University. Harvard is tied this year with Princeton University as the No. 1 national university, a title it held alone last year.
SU’s College of Law hits No. 100 on the list of best law schools and SU’s School of Information Studies ranks No. 3 for graduate work in library and information studies behind University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
SU garnered a 91 percent average freshman retention rate, according to the report data. SU also has a large amount of classes — 9 percent — with more than 50 students.
Cantor said in the message on SU News that the rankings do not represent the best and brightest hope for higher education’s role in forging a better future. Cantor wrote that SU has been established as a university in tune with the world.
SU accomplished this, Cantor wrote, by having record-high applicant pools, surpassing enrollment targets and having a geographically, socioeconomically and racially diverse student body.
Lindsay Rechan, a senior biology and forensic science major, said that though she would like to better understand the criteria used to rank colleges, she feels satisfied with the quality of education she has received at SU.
‘A lot of the classes are big and lecture-based, so I think it’s more what you put into it,’ she said. ‘I don’t think it’s a lacking on the professors’ part or anything like that.’
Sarah Cullen, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said her appreciation for SU has been colored by a number of factors.
‘It’s definitely worth it in the end — the people, the region, the things you get out of living far away,’ she said.
Cullen also said that though she feels she could earn a comparable degree at a state school for a lower cost, attending SU has exposed her to individuals from different walks of life.
‘You get a more diverse crowd,’ she said. ‘(There are) people coming from all over the world here.’
Published on September 13, 2011 at 12:00 pm
