released its annual college rankings Tuesday and the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ dropped from 42 to 46 in the National Universities category, and from 10 to 13 among public universities.
This drop isn’t as severe as it might seem. As noted by the , this change is a relatively small one. In the rankings, many universities may have equal scores and so share a numeric rank. This year, for example, there are five institutions that are ranked 46th. Last year, there were several institutions ranked 42nd. Only one institution is now ranked above the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ that was not ranked above or tied with the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ last year: UC Irvine.
Ranks are calculated by weighting a number of factors:
- Undergraduate academic reputation
- Retention
- Graduation rate
- Faculty Resources
- Student selectivity
- Spending per student
- Alumni giving
Interestingly, the factor for which the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ shows the greatest deviation from other similarly ranked institutions is “Faculty Resources.” While the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ is ranked 46th overall, it is ranked 150th in terms of faculty resources. The two most heavily weighted measures in faculty resources are:
- The percentage of classes with fewer than 20 students, and
- Average faculty salary.
Given the recent economic situation faced by the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ, it is not surprising that these are problematic measures for us.
In summary, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµâ€™s ranking has dropped, but the significance of that drop is low. Moreover, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµâ€™s low ranking on the key “Faculty Resourcesâ€� factor is to be expected given the salary freeze and state funding cuts the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµ has experienced during the Great Recession.