U.S. News Ranks The University of Scranton Among Nation’s ‘Best Colleges’

For 21 consecutive years, U.S. News & World Report ranked The University of Scranton among the top 10 “Best Regional Universities in the North,” ranking the University at No.7 in its 2015 “Best Colleges” guide.

U.S. News & World Report ranked The University of Scranton No. 7 among the “Best Regional Universities in the North,” as a “Great School at a Great Price,” and as one of the nation’s “Up and Coming” universities in its just published 2015 “Best Colleges” ranking. U.S. News has ranked the University among the top 10 schools in its category for 21 consecutive years.

“The consistently high rankings the University receives from independent, national sources, such as U.S. News, validates the quality of education that we are committed to providing our students,” said University of Scranton President Kevin P. Quinn, S.J. “It recognizes the dedicated work of our faculty, administrators and staff, as well as the academic success of our students.”

According to the well-known guidebook, U.S. News “Best Colleges” rankings “provide an excellent starting point” for the college search for families “concerned with finding the best academic value for their money.”

U.S. News ranked the University No. 12 in its category of colleges recognized as “Great Schools at Great Prices.” The ranking, which includes just 150 colleges in the nation, compares academic quality of programs to cost of attendance. U.S. News explained the significance of the ranking as “(t)he higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.”

The University was also among only 47 universities in the nation recognized by U.S. News for recently making “the most promising and innovative changes in the area of academics, faculty, student life, campus or facilities.” The University ranked No. 5 in its category based on the number of nominations received by college presidents, provosts and admissions deans from across the country.

For the University’s No. 7 “Best Regional Universities in the North” ranking, U.S. News categorizes schools based on the official Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification of universities. This category consists of 621 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.

U.S. News based this ranking on a range of quality indicators that include peer assessment of academic excellence (22.5 percent); graduation and freshman retention (22.5 percent); faculty resources (20 percent); student selectivity (12.5 percent); financial resources (10 percent); and alumni giving (5 percent); and graduation performance rates (7.5 percent), which compares a school’s actual graduation rates with predicted graduation rates based on characteristics of the incoming class.

The University was also among 328 schools listed, but not ranked, as “A-Plus Schools for B Students,” a listing that recognizes colleges where students fare well based on “spirit and hard work.”

The 2015 U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” rankings became available online Sept. 9.