In the recently released 2007 edition of U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, the University remained in the third tier – a position it has held for several years. But the University ranked eighth nationally in the Princeton Review’s biggest party schools, an 11-spot increase from last year. U.S. News and World Report and The Princeton Review release widely-read rankings of American universities each fall. U.S. News and World Report ranks the top 125 universities and then groups universities below that into a third or fourth tier. The University is in the “national university” category, which includes 248 institutions. Chancellor Sean O’Keefe said that while the lack of movement was discouraging, it is fair to note the significant progress the University has made in recent years. He said for example, the graduation rate has reached the national average, and the retention rate is about 5 percent shy of the competitive ranks, which is significantly higher than a few years ago. Additionally, the average incoming student will have a 3.56 GPA and made higher than a 25 on the ACT this fall compared to a 3.3 GPA and a 20 on the ACT in 2004. U.S. News and World Report ranked the University’s E.J. Ourso College of Business 60th in the nation, an increase of six spots from last year. “We’re moving up the scale,” O’Keefe said. “We’ve been making steady progress. I think we missed it by a very narrow margin. In years ahead if we keep up this steady progress, we’ll find ourselves in that upper tier.” Criteria considered for the U.S. News and World Report ranking include peer review, acceptance rates, graduation rates, alumni donations and proportions of class under age 20. O’Keefe said he is one of the participants of the peer review. In the U.S. News and World Report review, the University ranked above other Louisiana public schools including Louisiana Tech and University of Louisiana-Lafayette, which placed in the fourth tier. Tulane University, a first-tier private college, was ranked 44th in the nation. But the University took tops in the state for party school status. O’Keefe said he does not “put much stock in The Princeton Review.” The Princeton Review bases its party school review on student surveys concerning the use of alcohol and drugs, hours of study each day and popularity of the Greek system. The University of Texas at Austin was ranked the No. 1 party school in the nation and the University of Mississippi was No. 5. The Washington Monthly also puts out a college ranking list, based on scientific and humanistic research, an ethic of service to country and performance as an engine of social mobility. LSU was ranked 181st and Louisiana Tech was 183rd in the nation, according to The Washington Monthly. The University of Miami, which was ranked 55th by U.S. News and World Report, was No. 170 in The Washington Monthly. And Alabama A&M University, an unranked school in the U.S. News and World Report, was No. 24 in The Washington Monthly.
—–Contact Rebekah Allen at [email protected]