Connecticut”™s own Yale University fared well on the national college rankings this year, if a notch or two below rival Ivy League Harvard University.
Yale ranked third on U.S. News and World Report”™s newest installment of its college and university rankings, with Harvard and Princeton University tied for the top spot.
Fairfield University ranked second after Villanova University among regional universities in the Northeast, those that offer few doctoral programs in comparison to schools categorized as national universities.
Yale tied with Brown University in fourth for the quality of its undergraduate instruction, behind Dartmouth College, Princeton, and Miami University in Ohio. And Yale trailed only Harvard as the best value among national universities, factoring in financial aid.
U.S. News and World Report uses a range of factors in determining rankings, including acceptance rates and standardized test scores of incoming students.
The University of Connecticut again led public universities in New England, though it slipped from 19th to 21st among public universities nationally, with Rutgers in New Jersey at 25th. The University of California Berkley led the public universities nationwide, followed by UCLA and the University of Virginia.
The rankings arrived in the wake of two huge retirement announcements at Yale and UConn, with Yale President Rick Levin stepping down next year after two decades leading the New Haven institution, and Jim Calhoun stepping down as head coach of the UConn Huskies men”™s basketball team, having become synonymous with the school.
“It”™s a tough day for UConn, the state of Connecticut, our fans and alumni throughout the nation,” said UConn President Susan Herbst at the press conference announcing Calhoun”™s retirement. “I tell people often across the university that they should aim for excellence of the highest order. Whether they”™re scientists, policy analysts or facilities managers, I say look at Jim Calhoun ”“ look at what he delivers. It takes guts and it takes tenacity.”
Yale”™s presidential search committee includes Indra Nooyi, CEO of Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc. and a Greenwich resident. Yale is also in the midst of a search for a new provost.
Middletown”™s Wesleyan University ranked 17th among liberal arts colleges, with Williams College in Massachusetts leading the category. Trinity College in Hartford ranked 38th and Connecticut College in New London ranked 41st.
In the regional colleges category ”“ those that focus on undergraduate education but award less than half of their degrees in liberal arts ”“ New York City”™s Cooper Union knocked the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London from the top spot the academy held last year.
Other local colleges and universities finished lower on their respective lists. On the Northeast regional university list featuring Fairfield University, Hamden”™s Quinnipiac University ranked 13th and Fairfield”™s Sacred Heart University 38th, with the University of Bridgeport and Western Connecticut State University in Danbury not ranked.
