Pitt rises in U.S. News & World Report public and national university rankings

The University of Pittsburgh has jumped up in the U.S. News & World Report rankings for both public colleges and national universities, along with some more specific categories.

  U.S. News & World Report rankings   2019   2020
  National universities   70   57
  Public universities   26   18
  Best colleges for veterans   37   30
  Most innovative schools   55   63

For national universities, Pitt tied at No. 57 with Penn State, Purdue, University of Miami and Florida State, out of 318 schools.

Princeton and Harvard took the top two spots, with Columbia, Yale and MIT tied for third.

UCLA, Berkeley and Michigan were at the top of the public colleges list, out of 146 schools. Pitt again tied with Penn State, Purdue and Florida State.

The U.S. News & World Report rankings are based six main indicators: Outcomes (35 percent), faculty resources (20 percent), expert opinion (20 percent), financial resources (10 percent), student excellence (10 percent) and alumni giving (5 percent).

Some factors that supported Pitt’s rise in the rankings included student graduation and retention rates and class sizes.

Princeton Review numbers

The Princeton Review’s annual ranking of colleges based on input from students has once again put Pitt’s main campus among the top colleges in the country.

The 385 schools on the list are not ranked numerically. Schools on the list must agree to allow Princeton Review to conduct independent surveys of its students, and those surveys — 140,000 of them — are the exclusive basis for the college rankings.

The Oakland campus, along with Bradford and Johnstown were among the 224 Best in the Northeast schools.

Pitt’s main campus also landed at 20th for "College City Gets High Marks," based on student ratings of the towns and cities where their schools are located.

The Oakland campus also ranked high on a few negative lists:

  • Financial Aid Not So Great: Ranked 1st, based on real student ratings of overall satisfaction with their financial aid packages. Penn State (6) and Duquesne (8) also made this list.

  • Professors Get Low Marks: Ranked 15th, based on student ratings of their professors’ ability to bring their material to life.