In a recent national university ranking conducted by the U.S. News & World Report, the University of Illinois climbed from No. 41 last year to No. 35 today.
The Grainger College of Engineering and the Gies College of Business received high rankings in the report. Engineering was ranked No. 5 in the best undergraduate engineering programs. Several programs in Business were ranked in the top 10, with accounting ranked second and insurance ranked eighth.
The University is ranked No. 12 in top public schools, tied with the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Gisselle de la Cruz, junior in LAS, explains that the University’s constant high ranking of the top public schools drew her to apply.
“One of the reasons I chose to attend UI is because they teach their students how to be successful in any area,” de la Cruz said.
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In May, U.S. News and World Report announced that they would be changing the methodology of ranking schools to place more emphasis on students’ success and remove “alumni giving, faculty with terminal degree, class size and high school standing” as ranking metrics.
The administration expressed positive feedback to the changes in the ranking indicators.
According to a statement from the Office of the Chancellor, “It is good to see some of these companies making adjustments to their rankings to give more weight to factors that speak to a university’s efforts in areas around educational access, affordability and achievement.”
The statement added that the presence of many highly ranked programs reflects the University’s goals of “delivering excellence on a massive scale.”
The chancellor said in the statement that “the ranking that always matters most to us is the one our students make when they selected Illinois as their top choice for their college education.”
