Northeastern moved one step closer to President Richard Freeland’s ultimate goal last week when the university bumped up seven places on U.S. News and World Report’s list of best colleges. The university moved from the bottom group of the 249 nationally-recognized universities from place 127 into the top-seeded list at 120.
President Freeland has previously announced his objective to move Northeastern into the top 100 schools on the list.
“It now means young people all over the country, when they’re looking to the top institutions, Northeastern will now be on that list,” Freeland said.
Freeland attributed a large majority of the improvement to academic reputation and graduation rates. He said the 3.0 out of 5.0 rating on academic reputation made a big difference in the overall 39 score. The university had a graduation rate of 60 percent for 2003.
Other factors that averaged into the overall ranking included a freshmen retention rate of 84 percent, an SAT bracket of 1120-1300 and an acceptance rate in 2003 of 47 percent.
In addition to moving up on the list, Northeastern is also moving closer to the “lucky 13” group of schools it compares itself to, Freeland said. The schools include Boston University, Boston College, Fordham University, Syracuse University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, George Washington University and American University.
Most of the universities are private and urban, Freeland said.
Boston University, the closest in proximity to Northeastern of the 13 competing schools, ranked in at 56, eight places higher than last year. BU received an overall score of 54 with a 3.4 ranking in academic reputation.
Freeland said even moving from a 3.0 to 3.1 in academic reputation could make a large difference in Northeastern’s rankings. An overall ranking of 42 or above could bring Northeastern well into the top 100, Freeland said.
Boston College, the highest ranked of the “matchmate” schools, fell at 37 on the list. BC received a score of 64 overall and a 3.6 in academic reputation.
In the 2002-03 academic year, Northeastern was ranked at 142. It received a 2.9 in academic reputation with a 56 percent graduation rate.
Newly-hired Vice Pres-ident for Marketing and Communications Brian Kenny said the university will use the new rankings to enforce the image of Northeastern they are already trying to project.
“It definitely reinforces the fact that the university has improved in some key areas, and that’s how you advance,” Kenny said. “We have a great story to tell about how we did it.”
