U.S. News Ranks Scranton No. 6 in 2020 Guidebook

U.S. News & World Report has ranked The University of Scranton among the top 10 “Best Regional Universities in the North” for the 26^th consecutive year. U.S. News ranked Scranton No. 6 in the 2020 edition of the “Best Colleges” guidebook, which became available online today.

U.S. News also ranked Scranton No. 5 in its category in a listing, based on peer assessment recommendations, of the nation’s “Most Innovative Schools,” which recognizes colleges that are making “innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology and facilities.” In addition, U.S. News ranked Scranton No. 12 in its category in its “Best Undergraduate Teaching” listing of the top colleges in the nation expressing “a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

In national rankings, as opposed to listings by category, U.S. News included Scranton among America’s “Best Undergraduate Business Programs,” ranking Scranton at No. 224 in the U.S., and among the nation’s “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs,” ranking Scranton No. 143 among schools where a doctorate is not offered. Also, in national rankings of all business programs in America, U.S. News ranked Scranton’s entrepreneurship program at No. 33, its finance program at No. 43 and its accounting program at No. 52 in the country.

In addition, Scranton was ranked No. 38 as a “Best Value Regional University in the North,” which compares academic quality of programs to cost of attendance. This is the seventh consecutive year U.S. News has recognized Scranton as a “Best Value” school. Scranton was also listed among the “top ranked” colleges where students do well based on “spirit and hard work.”

U.S. News slightly changed the methodology used in its rankings this year to include a first-generation student graduation variable among the data used to determine a school’s “outcomes” assessment, which represents 35 percent of the overall score. Other factors in the “outcomes” assessment include a social mobility score, freshman retention, graduation rates and graduation performance rates, which compares a school’s actual graduation rates with predicted graduation rates based on characteristics of the incoming class.

In addition, U.S. News considers a range of quality indicators for its ranking that includes peer assessment of academic excellence (20 percent); faculty resources (20 percent), which now includes regional cost-of-living adjustments to faculty pay and benefits; student selectivity (10 percent); financial resources (10 percent); and alumni giving (5 percent).

U.S. News categorizes colleges for their rankings based on the official Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification of universities.

The 2020 U.S. News “Best Colleges” rankings became available online Sept. 9.