University Times

Pitt was ranked 48th among the nation's 147 public universities in the U.S. News & World Report's annual America's best colleges issue, announced Aug. 21.

In the ranking of national universities, 228 in all, Pitt finished in the second tier, numbers 51-117, which the magazine lists alphabetically.

The magazine defines national universities (as opposed to "national liberal arts colleges," "regional universities" or "regional liberal arts colleges") as those that offer a "full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs, and that emphasize faculty research." The rankings are derived from a weighted comparison of indicators: academic reputation (25 percent weight), retention (20 percent), faculty resources (20 percent), student selectivity (15 percent), financial resources (10 percent), alumni giving rate (5 percent) and graduation rate performance (5 percent). (The last indicator, graduate rate performance, is defined as the difference between a school's six-year graduation rate for the class that entered in 1991 and the predicted rate for that class; the predicted rate is calculated using a formula that accounts for the standardized tests scores of 1991-entering students and the school's expenditures on them over the years, two factors that have a bearing on graduation rates. If the actual graduation rate is higher than the predicted rate, the school is judged to have enhanced the students' achievement. For example, Pitt scored a predicted six-year graduation rate of 57 percent, while the actual count was 61 percent, according to the magazine.) Carnegie Mellon University and Penn State were ranked 25th and 44th, respectively, on the overall list of national universities. The top spot was shared by Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities.