TCNJ News
For Immediate Release
August 17, 2007
TCNJ Tops U.S. News List of Best Colleges
For 16th Consecutive Year
EWING, NJ…The College of New Jersey once again is the top public college in U.S. News and World Report's list of Best Universities-Master's category for the northern region of the country. For the 2008 edition, the College is ranked 5th in the standings among both public and private institutions in the Best Universities-Master's category for the north, where 165 schools were ranked.
According to U.S. News, the 557 schools that make up the universities-master's category offer a full range of undergraduate degree programs and some master's degree programs, but few, if any, doctoral programs. TCNJ has the highest average freshman retention rate, 95 percent, and third highest graduation rate, 83 percent, among schools in the northern region. The College also tops all public and private colleges in its category in the percentage of incoming freshman who come from the top 25 percent of their high school class (93 percent).
U.S. News categorizes SAT scores based on the percent of students scoring in the middle 50th percentile, where TCNJ ties Villanova University at the top of this category.
The College has ranked as the best public college in its region in the U.S. News survey since 1993.
“TCNJ's standing in the current U.S. News and World Report rankings is a source of pride, and I am particularly satisfied by the consistency with which we have been ranked the top public institution in the north,” said Dr. R. Barbara Gitenstein, TCNJ's president. “Two of the statistics behind these rankings, freshman retention rate and graduation rates, are the best indicators of student satisfaction and student success. TCNJ excels in both because of our exceptional faculty and staff.”
The rankings, which were posted on usnews.com on Friday, August 17 at 12:01 A.M., use seven indicators to capture academic quality. The most heavily weighted indicators are assessment of a school's academic quality by administrators at peer institutions, and retention rate. According to the U.S. News methodology, “The U.S. News ranking formula gives greatest weight to the opinion of those in a position to judge a school's academic excellence. The peer assessment survey allows the top academics we contact-president's provosts and deans of admission at peer institutions-to account for intangibles such as faculty dedication to teaching.”
A complete list of the 2007 rankings as well as the methodology can be found on the U.S. News and World Report Web site at www.usnews.com.
About The College of New Jersey
TCNJ currently is ranked as one of the 75 "Most Competitive" schools in the nation by Barron's Profiles of American Colleges, is rated the No. 1 public institution in the northern region of the country by U.S. News & World Report, and is one of Kiplinger's Personal Finance's top educational values in the country. In 2006, the College joined an elite group of institutions when it was awarded a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Fewer than 10 percent of the nation's colleges and universities share this honor.
