Carolina Still Fifth in U.S. News Rankings

Posted on Sept. 1, 2004

For the second consecutive year, Carolina ranks as the nation’s fifth-best public university, according to U.S. News & World Report. The magazine’s annual rankings also placed UNC among the national leaders in affordability of higher education.

Carolina held steady in the overall rankings of private and public campuses, placing 29th – the same as one year ago. The new rankings appeared in the magazine’s “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook in late August.

The Kenan-Flagler Business School tied for sixth overall among undergraduate business degree programs. Kenan-Flagler tied for third among public campuses. Both of those were improvements of one position over 2003.

Although the University didn’t make headway in the magazine’s rankings, Chancellor James Moeser said UNC is seeing positive growth and development.

“Carolina is making progress in strategic areas that we have defined as critical to providing a high-quality undergraduate education,” Moeser said. “These U.S. News rankings reflect only one assessment of a university’s quality. Our focus is on overall excellence to benefit the people of North Carolina and beyond.”

Among public college campuses, the University of California at Berkeley ranked first, while the universities of Michigan and Virginia tied for second. UCLA was fourth.

Harvard and Princeton universities tied for the overall top ranking.

U.S. News rankings are based on a formula that weighs data including opinion survey responses about academic excellence from peer presidents, provosts or admissions officials; student retention rates; faculty resources; student selectivity; financial resources; graduation rates; and alumni giving. Carolina earned high marks in the magazine’s “Great Schools, Great Prices” feature, ranking second among publics and 19th overall. In this category, the schools were ranked for offering the best value based on a formula that related academic quality to the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average amount of financial aid.

Another category – least debt among students – listed UNC sixth among public campuses and 11th overall. In 2003, 24 percent of Carolina graduates posted an average debt that totaled just over $11,500.

In other U.S. News rankings, UNC posted a 21-point gain in the faculty resources category, the University’s best showing in that category in five years. The magazine considered snapshots of class size, average faculty compensation in 2002-03 and 2003-04, proportion of faculty who are full time and hold the highest degree in their fields, and student to faculty ratios.

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