Brown retains 14th place ranking in U.S. News and World Report’s 2017 Best Colleges list

BROWN UNIVERSITY retained its 14th place ranking among Best National Universities in the 2017 Best Colleges ranking published by U.S. News & World Report Tuesday.
BROWN UNIVERSITY retained its 14th place ranking among Best National Universities in the 2017 Best Colleges ranking published by U.S. News & World Report Tuesday.

(Updated 9:01 a.m.)
PROVIDENCE – Brown University retained its 14th place ranking while the University of Rhode Island tied for 159th place among Best National Universities in the 2017 Best Colleges ranking published by U.S. News & World Report Tuesday.

The 2017 report ranked the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth as No. 220 (tied) in the Best National Universities category, elevating it from last year’s standing as No. 83 in the top regional university list.

Providence College also took first place in Best Regional Universities North.

The 1,800 U.S.-based schools are ranked by peer review as well as categories set out by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, which, according to U.S. News, is the foremost classification system in U.S. higher education and has been used by the organization since 1983. These categories include class size, retention and graduation rates, SAT/ACT scores, acceptance rate and financial resources.

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U.S. News defines a national university as an institution which values research and offers a variety of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs.

Findings by U.S. News show 70 percent of Brown University’s classes have fewer than 20 students and the 2015 graduation rate was 96 percent. The 25th-75th percentile range in ACT/SAT scores for Brown University students was 1370 to 1560, the school’s 2015 acceptance rate was 9 percent and it also ranked 22nd for financial resources.

URI, a public university, came in at No. 159 in the U.S. News & World Report survey, improving from No. 161 in the 2016 report. U.S. News found 39 percent of the university’s classes are under 20 students and the 2015 graduation rate was 63 percent. URI students were in the 25th-75th percentile range in ACT/SAT scores at 1010-1190, their 2015 acceptance rate was 71 percent and their financial resources rate was unpublished.

In addition, Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., tied for No. 108 in the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges category, an improvement from No. 116 in 2016, and Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., tied for No. 77, a 20-spot decrease from 2016.

In the Best Regional Universities North category Providence College took first place, improving from last year’s second place, with an 85 percent 2015 graduation rate and a student to faculty ratio of 12:1.

U.S. News defines a best regional university as one which offers diverse undergraduate disciplines and “some master’s but few doctoral programs.”

In this category Salve Regina tied for No. 32, improving from No. 36 last year; Bryant College tied for No. 9, jumping two positions since last year, while Roger Williams University tied for No. 35, jumping one spot from last year.

Rhode Island College came in No. 137, down 6 spots from the 2016 results and Johnson & Wales University tied for No. 67, falling the most, nine spots, from No. 58 in 2016.

The New England Institute of Technology was unranked in the Best Regional Universities North category. Rhode Island School of Design, also, remained unranked.

Overall, Princeton University and Williams College held their No. 1 positions on the Best National Universities and Best National Liberal Arts Colleges lists, respectively. The University of California, Berkeley was the top-rated public school nationwide, but 20th in the Best National Universities category. The top public school in the Best National Liberal Arts Colleges category was the U.S. Naval Academy, which ranked ninth overall in the category.

The launch of the 2017 Best Colleges rankings was sponsored by Fidelity Investments.

To read the entire report, click HERE.

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