The University of Scranton is celebrating a decade of national recognition following the release of U.S. News & World Report’s 2004 “America’s Best Colleges” issue, which ranks Scranton among the top ten universities in the north for the 10th consecutive year.


The University of Scranton is celebrating a decade of national recognition following the release of U.S. News & World Report’s 2004 “America’s Best Colleges” issue, which ranks Scranton among the top ten universities in the north for the 10th consecutive year.

In the 2004 edition, The University of Scranton ranked sixth among “Universities – Master’s” in the north. Also in the edition, Scranton was included among “Key Criteria in Judging School” having a graduation rate that was among the highest in the north.
U.S. News has included the university in its rankings since the magazine first introduced them 20 years ago in 1983.

“I congratulate the entire University family – faculty, staff, students and alumni – for helping us to achieve the remarkable milestone of a decade of national recognition,” said University of Scranton President Scott R. Pilarz, S.J. “We are delighted to be counted so consistently among the very best colleges and universities in the nation. It is a great way to begin our 115th year of service to the people of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the nation and the world.”

The north is the nation’s largest and most competitive region. It includes more than 170 schools in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and the six New England states. As defined by U.S. News, the “Universities – Master’s” category consists of 572 institutions nationwide that offer a full range of undergraduate programs and also provide graduate education at the master’s level.

U.S. News bases its “Universities-Master’s” rankings on a range of quality indicators, including peer evaluation, retention of students and graduation rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. Data are gathered from reports that institutions complete for various government agencies, and from surveys of presidents, provosts and deans of admissions at universities and colleges in the regions.

“As comprehensive as U.S. News tries to be in constructing the rankings, their criteria do not take into account many other educational outcomes that make an even stronger case for the quality of education at The University of Scranton,” Fr. Pilarz added. “These include, for example, the rate at which our students gain acceptance into graduate and professional schools and our students’ consistent success in garnering prestigious fellowships and scholarships.”

In just the last three years, for example, University of Scranton students have earned eleven Fulbright Fellowships, two Truman Scholarships, four Freeman Awards, a Goldwater Scholarship, a Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Scholarship and Graduate Scholarship, three NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships, two Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarships, two State Farm Fellowships, an Austrian Government Teaching Assistantship and a DeRance Scholarship. In 2003, medical schools accepted more than 80% of the 54 Scranton seniors who applied, more than twice the national average.

In the 2004 rankings, The University of Scranton rose in its peer assessment ranking and continued its trend of receiving especially high marks for alumni support, retention and graduation rate. U.S. News spotlighted Scranton among schools in the north with the “Highest Graduation Rate.”

According to the magazine, the ranking formula gives the greatest weight to the peer assessment score. Formerly titled academic reputation, the score is based on the “opinion of those in a position to judge a school’s academic excellence.” The survey allows presidents, provosts and deans of admissions at peer institutions to evaluate the “intangibles such as faculty dedication to teaching.”

Scranton’s four-year graduation and continuation rate has averaged roughly 80 percent since 1989, the fourth highest among top ten institutions in the region. Scranton also reported a fall-to-fall retention rate for freshmen that has averaged 90 percent since 1989.

Taken together, the peer assessment and graduation and retention rates account for half of the overall score in the U.S. News rankings.

In the area of alumni support, 31 percent of University of Scranton graduates continue to support the University through annual gifts, the highest percentage among the north’s top ten institutions. Scranton ranks second only to the College of Holy Cross among the nation’s Jesuit colleges and universities in the percentage of its undergraduate alumni of record who donated money to the university last year.

The U.S. News ranking follows on other recognition The University of Scranton has received for the quality and value of its educational offerings. This summer, Kaplan Publishing counted Scranton among the country’s “328 Most Interesting Colleges.” In April, the Washington Post Magazine included Scranton among the nation’s 100 “Colleges Worth Considering.”

For three consecutive years, Yahoo Internet Life! magazine listed the University among “America’s Most Wired Colleges.” On the final edition of the survey in 2001, the University ranked 39th, the highest ranking of any Jesuit college or university.

In 1999, the University became one of only 100 colleges and universities in the nation to be named to the Templeton Foundation Honor Roll of Character-Building Colleges.

8/21/03