UConn Advance - August 27, 2007 - UConn joins ranks of top 25 public colleges

UConn is among the top 25 public universities in the nation, jumping three places in the U.S. News & World Report rankings issued last week.

For the ninth year in a row, UConn is also the top public university in New England.

UConn is ranked number 24 on the list, tied with Purdue and the University of Iowa. Last year, UConn was ranked 27th.

UConn is also included again this year in The Best 366 Colleges, a publication of The Princeton Review.

“The rankings, gratifying though they are, really tell an incomplete story,” says President Philip E. Austin.

“First, the rankings are based on data more than a year old, and during the past 12 months UConn has continued to advance in every important respect. More fundamentally, however, the rankings only hint at the spirit of enthusiasm and the general sense of quality present on all our campuses. Our faculty, our alumni, our students and their parents know that this is a university that values and achieves excellence in instruction, in research, and in service to the state and national community.”

Some of the notable measures of quality include:

Increasing demand for admissions, with a 114 percent rise in freshman applications to Storrs since 1995.
Increasing quality, with average SAT scores for Storrs freshmen up 79 points, to 1192, since the scores were re-centered in 1996.
Enrollment of 146 valedictorians and salutatorians this fall, a 50 percent increase over last year and up from a total of only 40 in 1995.
Increasing admission of students of color. This year’s freshman class includes 20 percent minority students, for a total increase since 1995 of 124 percent.
Retention rates that are substantially higher than most other public colleges, and an average graduation rate of 4.3 years – ranked fifth in the nation.

The University is in the midst of a 20-year infrastructure improvement program – UConn 2000 and its continuation, 21st Century UConn – that represents an unprecedented $2.3 billion investment in the University’s campuses.

Austin says the University has worked hard to improve its quality and take full advantage of the new facilities.

UConn joins ranks of top 25 public colleges

by Karen A. Grava - August 27, 2007