California State University, Stanislaus has been ranked among the best “regional” colleges in the west for the 19th consecutive year by U.S. News & World Report. The University placed No. 55 overall and No. 15 among public universities in the publication’s Regional University West Rankings.
To determine its rankings, U.S. News & World Report gathers data from and about each school in up to 16 areas related to academic excellence, then assigns a weight to each indicator based on which measures the publication determines to be the most important. The colleges — separated into national and regional universities — are then ranked by their composite weighted score.
Regional universities are similar to national universities in that they offer a full range of undergraduate and master’s programs, but they offer fewer doctoral programs and tend to draw students mostly from surrounding states. CSU Stanislaus moved up two places from last year in both the overall and public regional university rankings.
The rankings add to a growing list of accolades the University has received over the past several months. CSU Stanislaus earned a place in the 2015 edition of the Princeton Review’s “The Best 379 Colleges” guide, marking the ninth consecutive year the University has appeared on the prestigious list. It also received praise from the Princeton Review for its commitment to environmental sustainability, being named for the fifth straight year in “The Princeton Review’s Guide to 332 Green Colleges.”
CSU Stanislaus placed No. 173 out of 1,500 four-year colleges in Money magazine’s Best Colleges list, earning a B-plus grade for giving students the most value for their money. In Forbes magazine’s America’s Top Colleges list, which focuses primarily on the return on investment students receive from their alma mater, CSU Stanislaus made the cut at No. 476 overall and No. 88 in the West region. In May, the university placed No. 28 out of more than 2,500 schools in a Time magazine ranking based on access, affordability and educational outcomes.