The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
College rankings: Yale tied for 3rd nationally; UConn, Fairfield U. slip
It was a short reign at the top for Fairfield University.
A year after looking down on the rest of regional colleges in the north on the U.S. News and World Report, the Jesuit university is back in third place, behind Providence College and Bentley University.
The publications’ annual rankings also puts Yale University into a tie for third place among national universities and took the University of Connecticut down a couple of pegs on the list of top public colleges. In 2017, it was 18th. On the 2020 list, out Monday, UConn ranks 24th.
Meanwhile, three local universities, Sacred Heart of Fairfield, the University of Bridgeport and Quinnipiac University of Hamden, are nowhere to be found on the regional north list where Sacred Heart and Quinnipiac had been steadily climbing up the rankings. All three have moved to the national list.
Princeton and Harvard are No. 1 and No. 2 respectively on the national list and Yale shares third place with Columbia and MIT.
Whereas Quinnipiac last year, ranked 13th on the north regional list, it is now 153 on the national list. Sacred Heart, which was 35 last year in the north region, debuts on the national list at 218.
According to the U.S. News website, schools in the National Universities category offer a full range of undergraduate majors, masters and doctoral programs and emphasize faculty research or award professional practice doctorates.
In December 2018, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education
updated the Basic Classification used for Best Colleges. As a result, about 13 percent of ranked schools moved into different categories compared with last year, a U.S. News official said.
Sacred Heart officials say the shift puts them on the most prestigious list.
“We are excited by the challenges of being included in this new company of national universities,” said Sacred Heart President John J. Petillo. “We are pleased that U.S. News took notice of what we are doing and promoted us to a national classification. This recognition is a testament to the educational excellence and successful outcomes we provide to our students through our rigorous and demanding curricula.”
Among other universities and colleges in the state, the University of New Haven is now 66th in the regional north.
Fairfield
The third place ranking among regional universities in the north for Fairfield comes thanks to a 90 percent retention rate, high graduation rate and a rise in SAT scores for the incoming class, university officials say.
Fairfield is not on the national list by virtue of the number of doctoral programs it offers. That could change soon.
Schools included in the Regional Universities ranking offer a full range of undergraduate programs and provide graduate education at the master’s level and are placed in four geographical groups: North, South, Midwest and West.
“For us, given our overall strategic direction moving more national, as we begin to launch more online graduate programs, I think the national ranking is a positive,” said Jenn Anderson, a university spokeswoman.
Villanova University, which Fairfield considers a peer institution, recently shifted to the national category.
Fairfield jumped to number one of U.S. News’ Best Undergraduate Teaching list and second on the Most Innovative School. It also did well in graduating students eligible for Pell grants at the same rate as other students. It remains flat in the subjective peer rating which counts for 20 percent of the overall score an institution receives.
Outcomes are the mostly highly weighted ranking factor, contributing 35 percent of a school’s overall score.
Although the market seems to be flooded with various college rankings these days, Anderson said U.S. News is still considered a strong one.
“I think it is one of the factors parents and students look at,” Anderson said.
UConn slips too
At UConn, officials say a change in the way the schools’ financial resources are calculated allowed some competitors to “leapfrog” ahead of Connecticut’s flagship university in the rankings.
Among public colleges nationally, the University of California Los Angeles maintains the No. 1 spot.
All told, the data released Monday paint UConn as an academically strong university that consistently attracts top talent, retains and graduates those students in high numbers and is well regarded by guidance counselors and in higher education on the national stage, according to university officials in a released statement.
UConn stayed steady or improved in all measures of institutional quality this year in the rankings, including student retention and selectivity, graduation rates, academic reputation and faculty resources, they added.
“UConn is among the top 25 best public research universities in the nation, and we are very proud of that,” UConn President Thomas C. Katsouleas said. “Rankings are very important, but our strategy at UConn is not to chase this or any ranking. Rather, we are going to pursue what we value, building the strength of the institution, recruiting talented students and faculty, engaging our alumni and growing research, fully expecting the rankings to follow us.”
While UConn remains strong in freshman retention rates, with 93 percent of students returning after their first year, and continued strong average SAT scores of incoming freshmen, this year’s rankings also show other institutions stepping up their game.
UConn might have retained its hold at 22 if Florida State and University of Pittsburgh had not made enough gains to overtake them in the rankings, officials said. UConn was also hurt by the measure of alumni who donate to the institution. That counts for 5 percent of the ranking. Just under 9 percent of living alumni donated in the twoyear span that the ranking considers, continuing a decline in recent years.
“That is something we have control over and we fully expect to turn it around,” said Katsouleas.
While fewer alumni have given to UConn, UConn is raising higher dollar amounts. The UConn Foundation recently reported it raised $71 million in fiscal year 2019.
University of Bridgeport
UB’s move to the national list this year puts it in the unranked third tier, somewhere between 293 and 381. It also was recognized as the 39th most ethnically diverse national university, and the 119th best national university for top performers on social mobility, a new U.S. News category this year. It means UB enrolls and graduates a large number of disadvantaged students who are awarded federal Pell Grants.
The Bridgeport university also ranked among the top 206 national universities for undergraduate engineering programs.
“The U.S. News rankings underscore the vast array of opportunities that are available to our students from diverse backgrounds,” said UB President Laura Skandera Trombley.
lclambeck@ctpost.com; twitter/lclambeck