| Emory Report | August 25, 1997 |
Volume 50, No. 1 |
Emory ranked 9th-best national university by U.S. News & World Report magazine
Emory tied with five schools for a ninth-place ranking in the national university category of this year's U.S. News & World Report annual college quality rankings and had the highest "value-added" factor among the top 25 universities. Emory moved from a 19th-place ranking last year to ninth this year, primarily on the strength of its improvement in all criteria used by the magazine to rank universities.
"We are pleased that the U.S. News survey recognizes the tremendous investment we make in our faculty and academic programs," said Acting Provost Rebecca Chopp. "It is gratifying to know that our academic reputation keeps climbing, but like other fine universities, Emory can never be precisely measured and ranked. What matters most is that we offer an excellent education to the students who select us."
Emory's rankings in the survey's components were: 23rd in academic reputation (30th in '96), 19th in student selectivity (22nd in '96), eighth in faculty resources (20th in '96), 16th in overall financial resources (17th in '96), ninth in graduation and retention (12th in '96) and 22nd in alumni giving (37th in '96).
U.S. News also factored a "value-added" calculation into the rankings, which was designed by the magazine to represent the educational value a school adds between freshman orientation and graduation. Emory exceeded its predicted graduation rate by 12 percent, the highest exceed rate among the top 25 national universities. The measure focused on the difference between a school's predicted graduation rate-based on the median entrance exam scores of a school's entering students-and its educational expenditures per student in relation to its graduation rate.
With its move from 19th to ninth place, Emory moved the most in the top 25 rankings this year, placing ahead of Cornell, Johns Hopkins, the University of Chicago, Rice University, Washington University and the University of Notre Dame. Emory's ranking in 1995 was 17th. The University has been on the top 25 list since 1992 and is the only Georgia university ever to appear on the list.
U.S. News arrives at its rankings in the national university category by combining statistical data with the results of an academic reputation survey of college presidents, provosts and admissions directors. The academic reputation score accounts for 25 percent of the overall ranking; the retention ranking accounts for 20 percent of the overall ranking and combines graduation and freshman retention rates. Faculty resources account for 20 percent of the final score and represent the resources that schools devote to instruction and faculty. Student selectivity accounts for 15 percent of the overall score, and financial resources account for 10 percent of the overall score.
Emory also was ranked 24th among national universities in the category of "best value-discount price," which relates the cost of attending an institution to its quality.
The quality rankings will appear in the Sept. 8 issue of the magazine. U.S. News Online has published the Best Colleges rankings on the web at:
<http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/corank.htm>.
-Jan Gleason