Tech achieves highest ever U.S. News rank

Progress is the aim of all universities, and judging by U.S. News and World Report's latest rankings of "America's Best Colleges", Tech is making significant headway in that department.

Tech ranks seventh among public national universities, up one spot from last year. This is the highest Tech has placed on that list in the history of the ranking. This is the ninth consecutive year that Tech has held a top-ten position on this list.

Among all national universities, Tech moved up two spots to number 35 this year. This is Tech's highest placement since 2000 when it was also ranked number 35.

"This [increase] has occurred because of careful strategic investments and hard work on the part of many people as well as our willingness to take risks and lead into new areas," said Institute President Wayne Clough.

Individual schools and colleges did well in the national rankings too. Even though MIT still holds the number one spot for its undergraduate engineering program, Tech's College of Engineering moved up from sixth place to fifth place this year.

Within the College of Engineering, individual programs topped the lists. In specialty areas, Industrial Engineering remained first in the nation and Aerospace Engineering remained second, while Biomedical Engineering jumped a spot to third and Civil Engineering fell one spot to fourth.

In addition, Georgia Tech's College of Management now ranks No. 33 in the nation (15th among public universities), up 11 places from last year.

"Recollect that our goal is not to be ranked but to build an institution that is recognized for its innovative spirit and its outstanding people and programs," Clough said.

U.S. News and World Report arrives at its rankings by weighing a number of factors, including peer assessments, retention, faculty resources, selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate and alumni giving. The annual list, a staple of many high school students' college search, has begun to draw ire from those who question the reliability of the magazine's rankings. Over 60 colleges have agreed to boycott the peer assessments which count towards 25% of the overall score.

However, the rankings are and most likely will remain for a long time, very important to the institution and particularly to prospective students.

"I think a higher ranking will encourage more students to look at our school," said Lindsay Anglin, a first-year International Affairs major. "Personally, rankings played a major role in why I came to Tech."

"The increase in ranking reflects many different factors," said Anderson Smith, vice provost for Undergraduate Studies and Academic Affairs. "Certainly our reputation in undergraduate education, graduate education, and research continues to increase."

Moreover, U.S. News and World Report listed that for the second consecutive year, Tech's internship and cooperative education programs were among the 14 "Academic Programs to Look For" in the nation's universities.

As for academic specialties, the College of Management now ranks 8th in Quantitative Analysis, 10th in Production/Operations, and 15th in Management Information Systems nationally.

"Our movement up in the rankings demonstrates national recognition that we have made exceptionally excellent faculty hires, and have effectively retained superb faculty," said Steve Salbu, dean of the College of Management.

U.S. News and World Report was not the only prominent publication to recently commend the College of Management.

According to Fortune Small Business, Georgia Tech is one of 26 "America's Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs." It describes Tech as "hard to beat," saying that the College of Management "cultivates entrepreneurial thinking and... encourages collaboration between science and business students."

Not everything was flattering in the new rankings, however. In U.S. News and World Report, Tech placed number 65 in graduation and retention, and number 53 in faculty resources rank. With 20% of classes having 50 or more students, Tech fared worse than all but one of the national universities ranked above it.