Scranton Scores Strongly in U.S. News Rankings

        U.S. News & World Report recognized The University of Scranton in four rankings in its 2010 edition of America's Best Colleges, including a new ranking of just 80 schools in the nation hailed for a "Strong Commitment to Teaching."

        U.S. News ranked The University of Scranton seventh in the Best Universities-Master's in the North category, marking the 16th consecutive year that U.S. News has ranked Scranton among the top 10 universities in the north. Scranton ranked ninth in last year's edition.

        For the second year in a row, Scranton ranked among the "Top Up-and-Coming Schools," a list of only 77 schools in the nation recognized for "innovative changes in academics, faculty, students, campus or facilities." Scranton ranked fourth in the north.

        U.S. News ranked the Jesuit university 10th among "Great Schools at a Great Price," which relates academic quality to the cost of attendance. This is the sixth consecutive year that Scranton made this listing of just 15 schools in the north.

        In a new ranking in the 2010 edition, Scranton ranked third among the six Master's Universities in the North, and among only 80 in the nation, recognized for a "Strong Commitment to Teaching." According to U.S. News, this peer assessment ranking identifies "schools where the faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching - schools that emphasize this aspect of academic life."

        "Our students and alumni have long benefited from the extraordinary passion for teaching that our faculty display. It is gratifying that our peers also recognize their commitment," said Rev. Scott R. Pilarz, S.J., president of The University of Scranton. "We are equally proud of Scranton's listing among the select group of 80 up-and-coming schools in the nation, which validates the transformational changes we have made and continue to make on campus."Scranton is included in the category that U.S. News defines as "Universities - Master's," which consists of 572 institutions nationwide that offer a full range of undergraduate and master's level programs, but offer few, if any, doctoral-level programs. The universities in this category are ranked within four geographic regions in the nation. The north region consists of 171 schools in 11 states and Washington, D.C.

        U.S. News bases its rankings on a range of quality indicators that include peer assessment (25 percent); graduation and freshman retention (25 percent); faculty resources (20 percent); student selectivity (15 percent); financial resources (10 percent); and alumni giving (5%).  Data are gathered from detailed surveys of individual institutions, various government agencies, and surveys of presidents, provosts and deans of admissions at peer universities and colleges.

        The 2010 rankings became available at 12:01 a.m. on August 20 on the Web and in print on Monday, August 24.

        In addition to U.S. News, earlier this month Forbes.com listed The University of Scranton among "America's Best Colleges 2009" and the Princeton Review listed Scranton among "The Best 371 Colleges" in the nation. Scranton was also listed as a Military Friendly School in a national listing done by G.I. Jobs.