Freshmen attend highest ranked university in Colorado
Four days before the Rocky Mountain Showdown, CU has already beaten CSU.
CU was named the 34th best public university in the nation and the top Colorado public university, according to the 2009 edition of “America’s Best Colleges” by U.S. News and World Report.
The campus, boasting approximately 30,000 students, has one more reason to welcome more scholars.
“School ratings were really important to my mom when finding a good school to go to,” freshman international affairs major Jules Fortlage said. “I went to a college prep school where the best private schools and more elite ones were emphasized and because of the ranking my counselors were okay with my decision.”
Though some students did not factor in ratings when choosing a school, others said they were very important when deciding on where to go.
“The ratings were important when I was choosing which college to go to,” Colleen Clancy, a sophomore open option major said. “I checked out other schools and compared CU to CSU, and found that CU was better overall.”
Harvard University took the top rating for the combined ranking of public and private schools. CSU was ranked 63rd among public universities and 125th overall in the public and private category, compared to CU’s 77th ranking overall, according to the report.
“Hey, at least we’re better than CSU!” said junior Ben Gallaher, a civil engineering major said. “Number one in state makes more of a difference to me than on a national scale. I’m glad that we have a spicy ranch lead over CSU.”
Although this ranking is one spot higher than that of the 2008 report, some say they were disappointed.
“Frankly, I think CU should have gotten much better than that based on research productivity, which [CU] is considered as one of the top ten universities, Nobel prize winners, innovation, commitment to excellence, and that it is number one for NASA funding with public universities,” CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said.
When it comes to how effective this rating is to a student’s education, success is not predicated by rankings. Hilliard said he believes the recognition is nice to have but students should not stress about the university’s placement.
“What matters the most is working hard, making connections with faculty members and mentors, and a strong grade point average,” Hilliard said. “Do these things well in whatever course and you’re likely to have good academic and professional careers.”
After categorical placement by type of institution, the annual report is based on two different assessments, according to the publication’s Web site at Web site.
75 percent of the report is determined by a formula that objectively measures academic quality in 15 areas, including graduation rates. 25 percent is derived from a peer assessment survey that constitutes of responses given by the school’s president, provost and dean of admissions to rate peer quality.
The data is then weighted by importance of factors and ranked based on the composite score.
Other factors include graduation retention rates, student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, alumni giving and graduate rate performance.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Christine Larsen at Christine.larsen@colorado.edu.
