UT Slotted 46th in Latest U.S. News Rankings

By Lynn Freehill in Promote & Protect, Special on September 12, 2012 at 12:01 am | No Comments

These days, college rankings aren’t just a dime or dozen—they’re practically a penny per hundred, so many are there. But U.S. News and World Report‘s list remains perhaps the granddaddy of them all.

In this year’s edition, released today, The University of Texas at Austin slid one spot among national universities, from 45th to 46th. Sharing the 46th slot were Pennsylvania State University, the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, and Yeshiva University.

Well-funded private universities invariably take the top slots; Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Columbia, the University of Chicago, MIT, Stanford, Duke, Penn, Caltech, and Dartmouth took the top 10. The first public university to appear was the University of California-Berkeley, at 21st.

UT, meanwhile, has much to be proud of. For Academic Reputation, it tied for 6th among public universities along with Georgia Tech and the University of Wisconsin. Its business and engineering schools ranked especially highly. The McCombs School of Business slid one slot, to to 7th, while the Cockrell School of Engineering gained one slot, to 10th.

University spokeswoman Tara Doolittle said UT was not concerned about this year’s one-spot drop. “Every year there are fluctuations based on how other schools perform.,” she said. “We remain tied at No. 13 for public schools and we feel good about that, especially our reputational score, which puts us at 6th among public universities.”

UT continues to perform well given its resources, Doolittle added: it ranks 80 in financial resources, 93 in alumni giving and 115 in faculty resources. “So we are making every dollar count,” she said.

Freshman retention rates, graduation rates, and strength of the faculty are among the factors that figure into the U.S. News rankings.

Photo by Marsha Miller

Tags: college rankings UT, U.S. News rankings, University of Texas rankings, UT rankings