HOUGHTON — Officials at Michgian Technological University say the Upper Peninsula school continues to move up in the annual rankings of the best colleges and universities from US News & World Report magazine.
Michigan Tech now stands 56th — in the top third — of 170 public universities ranked. And MTU’s undergraduate engineering programs ranked in the top half nationwide — 73rd of 157 programs ranked.
Among 268 public and private national universities — a list topped by Princeton, Harvard and Yale — Michigan Tech ranked 116th. The magazine defines national universities as ones that place an emphasis on faculty research and graduate studies. After evaluating more than 1,800 U.S. universities, only 268 earned the “national university” designation, including Michigan Tech.
Among Michigan schools, the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor campus ranked No. 29 on this list, Michigan State University No. 85, Western Michigan University No. 173 and Central Michigan University No. 194. Wayne State University was on the list but in the “rank not published” category.
Michigan Tech also made the US News lists of “A-Plus Schools for B Students” and “Best Colleges for Veterans.” The magazine defines an A-Plus School for B Students as academically strong schools where promising students with less than the highest grades and test scores can be admitted and thrive. Best Colleges for Veterans are nationally ranked schools that are members of the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges Consortium and charge in-state tuition to out-of-state veterans.
“It’s always good to see rankings increase, and these are consistent with what we’ve seen recently in Money Magazine and other rankings,” said President Glenn Mroz. “US News & World Report concentrates largely on factors like class size and entrance selectivity, while Money Magazine includes a measure of student placement that puts us in the top 12 percent. Nevertheless, being 56th among public universities in a country where every state in the union has a flagship institution indicates we are ranked with the best.”
Explaining the methodology of its overall undergraduate “Best Colleges” rankings, US News says it uses “quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and our researched view of what matters in education.” The magazine combines indicators of academic excellence such as class size, entrance exam results, graduation and retention rates, student-faculty ratio, financial aid and alumni support. They also survey each school’s peers.
The US News undergraduate engineering program rankings are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions, the magazine says. Engineering school deans and faculty members were surveyed in spring 2014 and asked to rate each program they were familiar with on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished) for this ranking.