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By Matthew Winston
mwinston@uga.edu
The University of Georgia has moved into the top 20 in U.S. News and World Report’s annual listing of the nation’s best public colleges and universities. Tied with Purdue University, the University of Iowa and Ohio State University at number 20, UGA moved up two spots from last year’s ranking in the magazine’s 2001 edition of the “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook, released Sept. 1.
UGA has moved up six places in two years. Six institutions in the Southeast are on the top 20 list; UGA and Georgia Tech, ranked eighth, are the only schools from the state of Georgia on the list.
“It has been one of my long-term goals that the University of Georgia be ranked in the top 20 public universities in America,” says President Michael F. Adams. “The fact that we have accomplished that goal this quickly is evidence of UGA’s rapid rise in academic excellence. The challenge now is to continue to improve.”
U.S. News ranked UGA 57th among all national institutions, both public and private--up 12 places from a year ago. The 1998 guidebook had ranked UGA 83rd on the overall list of national public and private schools.
U.S. News uses several factors to determine the annual rankings. Among those factors are academic reputation, student retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate performance and alumni giving rate.
Undergraduate programs in business and engineering at the nation’s colleges were also ranked in this year’s guidebook. Undergraduate business programs in UGA’s Terry College of Business ranked in the top 30 for the second consecutive year, tied at 28th. The only other Georgia school in the top 30 was Emory University. Only three other business programs in the Southeast were ranked in the top 30.
Several specific programs within the Terry College were recognized. The accounting program was ranked 20th; finance ranked 16th, tied with Penn State University; management information systems tied Georgia Tech at 16; general management programs ranked 20th; and the college’s real estate program was ranked sixth in this year’s guidebook. No real estate program in the Southeast is ranked higher.
The business rankings covered only the 338 accredited business programs across the country. Rankings were based solely on reputational data gathered from deans and senior faculty members in these programs. |
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