CoE Undergrad Program Moves Up in U.S. News & World Report
October 31, 2008
For the first time, LSU recently was named as a Tier 1 university in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 edition of America’s Best Colleges. The report also published its rankings of the nation’s undergraduate engineering schools.
The LSU College of Engineering rose to a ranking of 86, moving up from an 89th rank last year. In addition, LSU is the only Louisiana school listed in the category of Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs. Methodology is based on peer assessment of deans and senior faculty (two at each engineering school) who rated each program on a scale from 1 (marginal) to five (distinguished).
"This higher ranking is just more evidence that LSU is improving every day. The proof is not only in our statistics, but also in our students and alumni, who tell the story of LSU through their personal successes and accomplishments," LSU Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Astrid Merget said.
LSU also would like to thank its alumni and friends for investing in the future of the university through the Forever LSU campaign. Forever LSU supports the National Flagship Agenda with a goal of raising $750 million by 2010, maintaining LSU’s status as one of the leading public institutions in the nation. Philanthropic support is one of the criteria used in the U.S. News rankings.
In the past four years, LSU’s graduation rate has risen from 57.5 percent in 2004 to 59.8 percent in 2007. Incoming freshmen ACT scores have increased from an average of 24.5 in 2004 to 25.3 in 2007, while the university’s faculty/student ratio decreased from 22/1 in 2004 to 20/1 in 2007.
In its report, the magazine ranks LSU 130th among 262 American public and private universities in the United States. LSU ranks 67th when compared to public universities only.
Info on U.S. News Rankings of Best National Universities:
To rank colleges and universities, U.S. News first assigns schools to a group of their peers, based on the basic categories developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2006. Those in the National Universities group are the 262 American universities that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees; some emphasize research.
In each category, data on up to 15 indicators of academic quality are gathered from each school and tabulated. Schools are ranked within categories by their total weighted score. Schools that receive the same numbered rank are tied and are listed in alphabetical order.
Article by Mimi LaValle, LSU College of Engineering, 225-578-5706, mlavall@lsu.edu
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