Penn, Swarthmore, Villanova high on new top colleges rankings
U.S. News & World Report is out with its annual higher-ed rankings, and a handful of colleges and universities in the Philadelphia region finished in the Top 10 in various categories.
U.S. News & World Report is out with its annual higher-ed rankings, and a handful of colleges and universities in the Philadelphia region finished in the Top 10 in various categories.
Princeton tied with Harvard for No. 1 on the National Universities list, with the University of Pennsylvania at No. 4 (tied with Cal Tech, MIT and Stanford), just behind Yale. Penn's Wharton School, though, once again topped the list of undergraduate business programs.
On the Liberal Arts Colleges list, Swarthmore was No. 3 (behind Williams and Amherst), while Haverford finished 10th.
Villanova was ranked No. 1 among Master's Universities in the Northeast, and Lancaster County's Elizabethtown College was No. 4 among Baccalaureate Colleges in the Northeast.
The categories reflect the range and types of degrees these schools award.
Among public universities, Penn State finished 15th, while finishing 47th overall on the National Universities list.
The lists were published today in print and online.
The rankings weigh all sorts of criteria, such as SAT scores, peer reputation, selectivity and alumni giving.
Change the criteria and the results can be dramatically different - as is the recent America's Best Colleges list at Forbes.com.
That list, which included schools of all sizes, had Princeton finishing second behind the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which finished at No. 14 on U.S. News' Liberal Arts list.
Forbes ranked the University of Pennsylvania a lowly No. 83 - well back of Swarthmore (12), Haverford (15), Bryn Mawr (35), and Franklin & Marshall (36).
Forbes considered student satisfaction with teaching, post-graduate employment success, likelihood of graduation from college within four years, student loan debt, and awards.
For more information, go to www.usnews.com and www.forbes.com.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
