Rice receives top rankings once more

By Josh Rutenberg     8/19/10 7:00pm

August has brought a wave of recognition for Rice University, including a spot on U.S. News and World Report's list for "Best Colleges" in 2011. U.S. News changes variables, Rice remains in top 20

The 2011 ranking from U.S. News and World Report marks the seventh year in a row Rice has received a top- 20 national university designation on the "Best Colleges" list, again tying with Vanderbilt with 82 out of 100 possible points in 17th place. Harvard College edged out Princeton University for the number one spot overall.

President David Leebron said that the rankings reflect Rice's ability to remain a top-tier institution, despite recent increases in the student body.

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Leebron also noted that while Rice should be proud of its ranking, other factors contribute to a successful university.

"It's important that we keep in mind the values of the university," Leebron said. "[Rankings] don't count the happiness of our students or the way we treat our students."

The list uses 16 factors of academic excellence to determine a school's rank, including undergraduate academic reputation, student retention rates and alumni giving rates. Schools are ranked on a scale of 1 to 100 points. U.S. News ranked more than 1,400 schools, 262 of which were included in the ranking of national universities.

Jones freshman Rohan Shah said that while rankings were a factor in his decision to attend Rice, there were other important considerations.

"The rankings certainly played a big part, but I'm from Houston and I knew Rice had a wonderful reputation," Shah said. "I chose Rice based on the fact it's next to the [Texas Medical Center] and Rice's med program rankings are extremely high."

Graduation rate performance - the difference between a school's actual graduation rate and the one predicted by U.S. News based on the students' test scores and institutional resources - increased to 7.5 percent from 5 percent in previous years, according to U.S. News's ranking methodology. The methodology claims that the variable rewards schools for enrolling and graduating more at-risk students.

Additionally, this year marked the first time opinions of high school counselors contributed to the rankings. Counselors' opinions represented 7.5 percent of the overall weight for university rankings. Peer ratings by presidents, provosts and deans were reduced to 15 percent from 25 percent of the score, resulting in a total of 22.5 percent of a school's score based on reputation, down from 25 percent in past rankings.

Rice also ranked 22nd in a separate list of high school counselor rankings with a score of 4.4 out of 5 possible points. Rice tied with seven other schools, including Boston College and Emory University, and placed one-tenth of a point behind Vanderbilt.

Leebron noted that because of the changes that occur every year, rankings are not always the best measure of a school's performance.

"There's a huge amount of arbitrariness in the rankings; someone should clearly not choose based on them," Leebron said. "Over time, however, they are clearly influential."

Rice placed on a number of other "Best College" lists, including 16th for "Great Schools, Great Prices" and 28th for "Up-and-Comers," or schools that are making improvements in areas related to academics, students, faculty, diversity, campus life and facilities.

For schools whose highest degree is a doctorate, Rice's George R. Brown School of Engineering tied for 19th with University of California at Los Angeles and University of Maryland at College Park. Rice's doctorate program for biomedical engineering rose to 6th from 9th position to tie with biomedical engineering programs at University of Pennsylvania and University of Washington.

Forbes' list of "America's Best Colleges" ranked Rice at 25 out of 610 schools. The rank was determined using five categories: student satisfaction, postgraduate success, student debt, four-year graduation rates and competitive awards.

Rice tops lists for happiness, diversity

In addition to its position as a top tier university ranking by U.S. News, Rice also earned a series of accolades from The Princeton Review's "Best 373 Colleges" rankings for 2011. Unlike U.S. News rankings, Princeton Review's lists focus on topics related to campus experiences.

For the second year in a row, Rice ranked number one for "Best Quality of Life." In 2007, Rice also ranked first in "Best Quality of Life" and has remained in the top 10 every year for the past five years. The ranking centered on student responses regarding food on- and off-campus, dorm comfort, campus beauty, ease of getting around campus, local community interaction, campus safety, student interaction and the overall "friendliness and happiness of the student body and smoothness with which the school is administered," according to Princeton Review's "Best 373 Colleges" website.

Shah said it's not the rankings but what is around campus that mattered more to him in choosing a school.

Rice secured a 2nd place spot for "Lots of Race/Class Interaction," a measure of the interaction between students of different cultural and financial backgrounds.

Leebron, whose Vision for the Second Century includes cultivating greater dynamism and vibrancy on campus to foster a sense of community, said The Princeton Review rankings provide a more holistic picture of Rice's strengths as a university.

"Overall, I'd put a little more stock in The Princeton Review rankings. I talked this year to a student who decided based on the happiest student rankings," Leebron said. "Those are more reliable because we know what they're about."

Other lists Rice appeared on included 10th "Great Financial Aid," up from 19th and 10th "Happiest Students," down from 8th last year.

Rice also added a new designation to its list of achievements. For the first time, Rice made the list of "Dorms Like Palaces" at 17th place.

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