Arizona’s three public universities were not able to crack the top 100 of the U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings this year.
The University of Arizona led the state, ranking No. 109 out of 436 in the national university category. Arizona State University followed, ranking No. 121, while Northern Arizona University came in at No. 244.
In the smaller category of top public universities, the schools fared better. The UA came in at No. 52, with ASU at No. 61 and NAU at No. 135.
The UA increased its place by six spots from last year’s ranking. And, the university ranks at No. 12 among Hispanic-Serving Institutions and No. 23 among state flagship universities.
The U.S. News & World Report ranking comes out every year and is often a tool for narrowing college searches for high school students and parents. Usually, when a college or university has a high rating, the institution’s presidents and board of trustees laud it. When the ranking isn’t as high, it’s often ignored.
“I am happy to see the University of Arizona’s position improve across so many different categories,” said UA President Robert C. Robbins in a statement. “As one of the nation’s top public universities, we believe it is our mission to provide a top-notch learning environment for a growing and diverse student population, while supporting the world’s best researchers and educators across a variety of subjects.”
None of Arizona’s three public universities cracked to Top 100 of the latest college rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The University of Arizona, however, ranked highest in the state — 109th out of 436 in the national university category.
According to the report’s authors, the ranking is based on colleges and universities providing “ample classroom resources for students and faculty,” conferring bachelor’s degrees at high rates, and producing “graduates who entered the workforce with manageable debt and worthwhile starting salaries.”
The magazine assessed more than 1,500 colleges, using as many as 17 measures of academic quality.
The UA has a 51% four-year graduation rate, a 19:1 student-to-faculty ratio and 33% of classes have fewer than 20 students, according to the report.
Additionally, according to the magazine, the most popular majors are in the business, management, marketing and related support services field. Fifteen percent of graduates had majors in that category. The next popular was biological and biomedical sciences, which 10% of graduates majored in.
The UA ranked No. 2 for management information systems, No. 19 in nursing and No. 51 for economics.
The top five general national college and university rankings include Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford and Yale.
The top five public schools are UCLA, UC Berkeley, Michigan, Virginia and North Carolina.
