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September 27, 2012

Pitt repeats at No. 58 in U.S. News rankings

EDU-College-Rankings_Widget_400x278_college-hp400x278Pitt held steady at No. 58 in this year’s U.S. News & World Report America’s Best Colleges rankings.

Among national universities, Pitt tied this year with Fordham, Southern Methodist, Syracuse and the University of Maryland-College Park. (Last year, Pitt tied at No. 58 with Connecticut, Florida and Texas A&M.)

The survey defines national universities as offering a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master’s and PhD programs, and emphasizing faculty research.

Harvard and Princeton held their No. 1 ranking, tying for first place on the U.S. News list of national universities as they did last year.

Rounding out the top five schools in the 2013 best schools report were Yale at No. 3, followed by Columbia and the University of Chicago, tied at No. 4.

The rankings are based on the following weighted factors: undergraduate academic reputation (22.5 percent); retention (20 percent), faculty resources (20 percent); student selectivity (15 percent); financial resources (10 percent); graduation rate performance (7.5 percent), and alumni giving rate (5 percent).

Of Pennsylvania schools that made the national universities ranking, Penn was No. 8, followed by Carnegie Mellon at No. 23, Lehigh at No. 38, Penn State at No. 46, Pitt at No. 58, Drexel at No. 83, Duquesne at No. 120, Temple at No. 125 and Widener at No. 189.

This year’s ranking ordered the top 199 schools and listed a total of 281 in the national category. Among the reasons schools may be unranked: if they don’t use SAT or ACT test scores in admissions decisions; if they received too few responses in the peer assessment survey, or if they had fewer than 200 students.

Top public schools

Among public national universities, the University of California-Berkeley topped the list; Pitt tied for No. 19 with the University of Maryland-College Park.

High school counselor rankings

Of 279 schools listed, Pitt tied for No. 63 with 19 other schools in rankings from high school counselors. The rankings were based on survey results from 2011 and 2012 in which more than 2,200 high school guidance counselors rated which universities they thought offered the best undergraduate education.

Financial aid

At Pitt, 54.5 percent of full-time undergraduates receive some kind of need-based financial aid with an average need-based scholarship or grant of $7,760. The average need-based loan was $4,861.

The average financial aid package at Pitt totaled $11,934, meeting, on average, 57 percent of a student’s need.

The survey found that 63 percent of undergraduates borrowed money for school; for students in the 2011 graduating class who borrowed, indebtedness averaged $26,612.

Student diversity

Pitt’s student body included 3 percent international students in the 2011-12 academic year, according to the survey. Topping the list was New School of New York with 27 percent.

U.S. News also calculates a diversity index ranging from 0 to 1, with higher numbers indicating greater diversity in the student population.

The index is calculated by factoring in the total proportion of minority students (excluding international students) and the overall mix of groups. It uses the following categories: black or African American, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian, Pacific Islander, white (non-Hispanic) and multiracial. Students who did not identify themselves with a group were classified as whites (non-Hispanic).

Among national universities, Rutgers topped the list with an index of 0.76. Pitt was near the bottom of the list of 261 national schools with a diversity index of 0.30.

Business and engineering programs

This year’s Best Colleges listings included undergraduate business and engineering programs, which were ranked based on peer assessment surveys.

Among undergraduate business programs, Pitt ranked No. 47, tied with Arkansas, Auburn, Bentley, Connecticut, Missouri, Oregon, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Tennessee. Penn was at the top of the list.

In undergraduate engineering programs, among schools where doctorates are the highest degree offered, Pitt tied for No. 50 with Rutgers and the University of Arizona. MIT ranked No. 1.

Retention and graduation

Pitt’s freshman retention rate (the average proportion of freshmen entering in fall 2007-10 who returned to school the following fall) was 92 percent — tied for 8th with Case Western, New York University, Penn State, Rutgers, Texas A&M, the University of California-Davis, the University of Delaware and the University of Texas-Austin. Topping the list were Columbia and Yale with 99 percent retention.

Pitt’s six-year graduation rate was 79 percent, tied for 18th with Georgia Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute of Technology and the University of Denver. At No. 1 were Harvard and Yale, tied with 97 percent.

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For the full list of rankings, which includes some 1,400 schools, visit www.usnews.com/college.

—Kimberly K. Barlow

Filed under: Feature,Volume 45 Issue 3

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