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Syracuse University dropped five spots from 2022 in this year’s U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, falling from 62nd to 67th.

On Forbes’ rankings, SU broke into the top 100 colleges, moving up two spots from 102nd place in 2022 to 100th in 2023. It placed 166th on the New York Times’ economic diversity ranking.

U.S. News ranks colleges and universities based on as many as 19 different factors, including graduation rates, first-year retention rates, borrower debt, peer assessment, financial resources, faculty salaries and graduation rates, according to its website.

For this year’s ranking formula, U.S. News increased the weight of social mobility and outcomes for graduating students. Other changes to the formula included the addition of a first-generation students outcomes factor and removal of factors for alumni giving and class size. These changes boosted many public universities’ rankings, while demoting other private colleges such as SU, according to the Washington Post.

SU’s highest rankings in the updated U.S. News rankings were in the categories “Study Abroad” and “Learning Communities” for the second year in a row. SU placed 10th and 15th in these rankings, respectively, dropping from 9th place for both last year. SU also placed 40th in Best Colleges for Veterans, 62nd in Best Undergraduate Teaching and 77th in Best Value Schools.

SU climbed 54 spots in the “Top Performers on Social Mobility” category to 143rd place this year. However, this is still one of SU’s lowest rankings in U.S. News.

A stronger focus on students receiving Pell Grants this year was also present in many of this years’ college rankings. This includes the NYT’s economic diversity ranking, which is measured by analyzing the share of students receiving Pell Grants, as well as in the U.S. News ranking.

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action, many schools are reexamining their admissions policies to ensure diversity, including by abandoning or reducing legacy-based admissions. The share of students receiving Pell grants indicates socioeconomic diversity in NYT’s ranking.

According to the NYT’s ranking, 18% of first-year SU students received Pell Grants in the 2020-21 school year, a 7% decrease from 2011. In fall 2022, 15.5% of students at SU received Pell grants, according to SU’s Office of Institutional Research.

Along with the ranking, Forbes provided data that contributed to its ranking list. Forbes published that at SU, the average grant aid was $31,590 and the average debt was $9,876 in the 2021-22 academic year. It also reported that the median salary 10 years after graduating is $125,500.

SU also scored higher in certain categories of Forbes rankings, similar to U.S. News. The publication listed SU as 56th in the best private colleges in the country and 42nd overall in the Northeast.

Published on September 18, 2023 at 10:38 pm

Contact Samantha: saolande@syr.edu