U.S. News: UCD is eighth-best public university

UC Davis climbed to a best-ever eighth among public universities in the latest edition of U.S . News and World Report’s much-watched college rankings, released earlier this month.

“UC Davis’ reputation continues to grow as one of the nation’s elite public universities, where innovative research is addressing the world’s most critical issues and students are equipped for productive, meaningful lives,” Chancellor Linda Katehi said in a news release.

“This honor attests to our outstanding faculty, students and staff, and our many loyal friends and supporters.”

UCD shares the eighth spot among public universities with UC San Diego. The magazine previously ranked UCD ninth among public universities in each of the past two years and in 1997.

In the magazine’s new overall national university rankings, UCD shares the No. 38 spot with UC San Diego and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

UCD officials said the campus benefited from an improved undergraduate education reputation score: The magazine bases 22.5 percent of an institution’s score on a survey of university presidents, provosts and deans of admissions.

The magazine’s top seven public universities are: UC Berkeley (21st overall), UCLA and the University of Virginia (both 24th), the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (29th), the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (30th), the College of William and Mary (33rd) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (36th).
Other California institutions in the top 50 are: Stanford University (sixth), California Institute of Technology (10th), the University of Southern California (24th), UC Santa Barbara (41) and UC Irvine (44).

Harvard and Princeton universities are tied for first overall.

Among the top 50 universities, 15 reported tuition and fees of less than $15,000. Of those, six were UC campuses.

At $13,877 for in-state students, UCD is 13th cheapest. North Carolina’s in-state tuition of $7,695 makes it the cheapest.

Also released with the report was U.S. News’ ranking of engineering schools. UCD improved four spots this year to 30th.

“This improvement is a tribute to the outstanding work and dedication of our excellent faculty and staff, and the significant recruitment, retention and engagement efforts of our Undergraduate Studies office,” said Enrique Lavernia, the college’s dean.”We are well positioned to move forward in many critical areas including sustainability, health care, manufacturing and information technology.”

Williams College topped the magazine’s ranking of liberal arts schools.

— Reach Cory Golden at cgolden@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8046. Follow him on Twitter at @cory_golden

Cory Golden

The Enterprise's higher-education and congressional reporter. http://about.me/cory_golden

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