University Relations
August 29, 2008 Communique
UCCS a top university, engineering program lauded
The undergraduate engineering program at UCCS is among the best in the nation and the entire university is among the best public universities in the Western United States, according to the editors of U.S. News and World Report.
In the 2009 college rankings edition, “America’s Best Colleges,” released Aug. 25, the magazine’s editors ranked the UCCS undergraduate engineering program tenth in the nation among public engineering schools offering bachelor’s or master’s degrees. The magazine’s editors ranked the overall quality of UCCS sixth among public master’s degree-granting Western universities.
For the past several years, UCCS ranked in the top tier of all public and private master’s universities in the West. Master’s universities provide a full range of undergraduate and master’s degree programs.
The undergraduate engineering program at UCCS was ranked in the same category as U.S. military academies. Other top engineering programs at public universities offering bachelor’s or master’s degrees were California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo, the U.S. Military Academy, the U.S. Naval Academy, the U.S. Air Force Academy, California State University Polytechnic-Pomona, Rowan University, San Jose State University, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Virginia Military Institute, and UCCS.
The top public Western universities granting master’s degrees were California Polytechnic-San Luis Obispo, New Mexico Institute of Technology, Western Washington University, California State University-Long Beach, Evergreen State College, Arizona State University-West, California State University Polytechnic University-Pomona, and UCCS.
In ranking more than 1,400 colleges and universities, U.S. News relies on quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality. Among the measures are student retention rates, graduation rates and class size.
“On behalf of all UCCS faculty and staff, I am pleased the high-quality of UCCS was recognized from a non-partisan and objective point of view,” Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak said. “Rankings demonstrate the commitment of this university to providing affordable, accessible education opportunities for the southern Colorado region.”
A round up of rankings of other CU System universities is available at https://www.cu.edu/. The complete rankings are available at www.usnews.com.