After climbing to a tie for ninth with Dartmouth College in the U.S. News and World Report rankings of undergraduate programs last year, Washington University has fallen to 11th place out of the 248 national universities surveyed, tying with Northwestern. In the “best value” category, however, the University moved up two spots to No. 12.
Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton expressed his pleasure at the University’s new position, noting that the University is stronger than it was a year ago.
“It is great to see that the University remains so highly regarded,” said Wrighton. “Recruiting great students and attracting and retaining talented faculty contribute to strengthening the University.”
U.S. News publishes its ratings of undergraduate programs yearly, ranking the top national universities, liberal arts colleges, undergraduate business programs and engineering schools.
The John M. Olin School of Business received a bump in the undergraduate business program rankings, moving up to 11th place from its 14th place spot last year. The finance program is ranked 17th.
The School of Engineering is ranked 39th, where it is tied with seven other schools, including Notre Dame and Brown.
In each specific category, the University posted strong numbers. These include fourth place in financial resources, ninth in alumni giving, sixth in faculty resources, eighth in selectivity, and 12th in best value. The University improved on its position from last year in the last three categories.
In addition to its position in the rankings, the University is featured prominently in several other articles in the magazine, including a college profile where the University is labeled a “hidden gem no more.” This piece highlights the low student-to-faculty ratio and the University’s campaigns to attract top students with merit-based awards.
Students also seemed pleased with the University’s position, especially considering that the school was barely cracking the top 20 a few years ago.
“It is disappointing to see that the rankings went down, but I’m glad that the business school moved up,” said senior Amanda Rauschkolb. “Overall, I think name recognition is more important in the end than the exact ranking.”
Freshman Danielle Davidson noted that the University remains a great place, regardless of the rankings.
“The school didn’t become any worse or change in any way due to the drop in the rankings,” Davidson said.
Parents also seemed pleased with the University on the whole, but noted that the drop is disappointing.
“Washington University should not be moving down in the rankings,” said Kiran Sikand of Colorado. “The school communicates well with students and parents and has an excellent faculty. Academically it remains well-known.”
The rankings are based on several key factors, with a significant portion of the information coming in the form of peer assessments from university presidents, chancellors, admissions deans and provosts. The publication assigns a specific weight to each of these criterion as well as retention rates, faculty resources, selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rates.
The final scores are eventually rescaled, with the top school in the category receiving a score of 100. Other schools’ scores are recalculated as a portion of the top school’s score.
The top national universities in the survey were Harvard and Princeton. Other Ivy League institutions such as Yale and the University of Pennsylvania also placed in the top five.
According to Steve Givens, assistant to the chancellor, university administrators are pleased with the results and will continue to recruit the best faculty and students, regardless of the rankings.
“The drop from ninth to 11th place does not represent a drop in quality,” said Givens. “We are still an elite university, and this remains a wonderful institution.”