Photo courtesy of U.S. News and World Report
Ramapo College has achieved the ranking of 28 on the U.S. News & World Report’s Top 50 Regional Universities North Rankings List for the 2015 edition of Best Colleges in Regional Universities (North), tying with Rutgers Camden and Wagner College.
“We are very proud that U.S. News & World Report, and many other external ranking publications, continue to validate what we know – that Ramapo is an excellent choice, on so many levels, for prospective students,” said Associate Vice President of Enrollment Management Christopher Romano. “Our position in the U.S. News & World Report rankings improved five spots this past year.”
The top spot went to Villanova, and was followed by Providence College. Ramapo ranked above schools like Monmouth University (37th) and Stockton College (41st), and below places like The College of New Jersey (third).
Students like freshman Jessica Cusick feel that Ramapo was appropriately ranked.
“I think it’s a pretty good spot. We have a nice campus and our academics are pretty good,” said Cusick.
According to the U.S. News and World Report’s education evolution, their ranking system “rests on two pillars.”
“The formula uses quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and it’s based on our researched view of the importance of what matters in education,” states their website.
The first pillar categorizes the school system based on how that school incorporates their mission. The U.S. Department of Education uses the Carnegie classification system to organize their data to determine the accepted standard in higher education. According to the U.S. News and World Report, their higher education researchers have used this system since the first rankings were published in 1983.
Once schools have been classified, the publication’s ranking system collects data from each applicable college to complete their evaluation and further their appraisal. According to this method, each aspect of evaluation is weighted and judged on importance. Finally, the colleges and universities in each category are compared to each other based on their scores and then ranked.
The U.S. News and World Report’s Best Colleges ranking is a tool that can assist potential students in evaluating different institutions in order to determine a suitable school for them based on location, campus life, academic offerings, extracurricular activities, cost and the availability of financial aid.
Many students who are worried about deciding what college or university they should attend use this list for a starting point to their search.
According to freshman Andrew Ramos, Ramapo’s campus and locality are factors that helped the College earn its ranking.
“We’re not too far low, and we’re not too far high. We’re right in the middle and I guess we deserve that,” said Ramos. “We have a beautiful campus and it’s local for people who live in North Jersey.”
However, Ramos concedes that, had private institutions been included in the ranking, Ramapo would have been ranked lower.
Ramapo ranked a bit higher on the list this year, helping to further acknowledge it as a top public institution, which ultimately attracts more students and their academic talents to join the institution.
“Many parents and students look at these various publications as part of their research into colleges and universities,” said Romano. “The record number of applications that we received for the class of 2018 is an indication that the value of a Ramapo education in the market continues to grow. It also demonstrates that more prospective students want to learn more about what we have to offer.”
Additional reporting by Rebecca King
sdarian@ramapo.edu
