Forbes Ranks The University of Scranton among ‘America’s Top Colleges’

Aug 12, 2014

The University of Scranton is among the elite universities included in Forbes’ online listing of “America’s Top Colleges 2014.”

The listing, compiled for Forbes by The Center for College Affordability and Productivity, ranked the University No. 265 among the 650 universities in the nation. The ranking is based on data intended to evaluate a school’s “output” or “return on investment.”

The University is among just 39 colleges in Pennsylvania and 25 Jesuit universities to make the national ranking. This is the seventh consecutive year that the University has been listed.

The Center for College Affordability and Productivity examined 12 factors to compile the rankings. Criteria included post-graduate success that looked at salaries reported in PayScale (10 percent), and alumni who were nationally recognized in lists such as Forbes’  “Women of Power,” or for winning Nobel or Pulitzer prizes or Academy Awards (22.5 percent). Data examined also included student satisfaction, debt and success as measured by Rate My Professor scores (10 percent); actual (12.5 percent) and predicted retention rates (2.5 percent); student loan debt (10 percent); student loan default rates (12.5 percent); four-year graduation rate (5 percent) and competitive fellowships won by students, including Fulbright scholarships (7.5 percent), among other factors.

The listing, which was published July 30, includes a brief profile of each school with information about tuition, class size and the faculty/student ratio.

Forbes does not categorize schools by size or institution type in its overall ranking, but does provide separate rankings of public and private colleges and geographic regions in other lists. Scranton ranked No. 192 in Forbes list of the “Top Private Colleges in America,” and No. 103 among the “Top Colleges in the Northeast.”


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