University of Hawai'i
University Relations
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For Immediate Release:

Aug. 27, 1998

Contact: Cheryl Ernst, (808) 956-5941

U.S. News College Survey

UH Manoa is 50th in Nation; UH Hilo is Third in Region

The University of Hawai'i at Manoa is ranked in the top 50 "public national universities" and UH ranked third in "public west regional liberal arts colleges" in the 1999 U.S. News and World Report America's Best Colleges rankings and guidebook.

Manoa was tied for 50th out of the 147 public institutions among the 228 accredited public universities that offer a full range of majors and graduate degrees. UH Hilo was third in public universities out of the 61 western regional liberal arts colleges -- accredited institutions that focus primarily on undergraduate education. Both universities are in the second tier in rankings of all instutions (public and private) in their categories. Criteria and how they are weighted in the U.S. News equation are listed below, along with details of UH performance, where available.

UH Manoa also has the distinction of having the nation's ninth lowest debt load for graduating students. And UH Hilo has the highest percentage of full-time faculty in its category.

Various aspects of the rankings appear in the America's Best Colleges guidebook released Aug. 24th, the Aug. 31 issue of U.S. News and World Report and at www.usnews.com.

UH Manoa

  • Academic reputation (25%) is based on a survey of presidents and admissions officers. UHM scored 2.7 on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished), placing in the top half of national universities.
  • Retention (20%) is based on the percentage of freshmen who return for a second year and the proportion of a class that earns a degree within six years. UHM had an 80 percent retention rate and graduated 56 percent of its students within six years, well within the top half of national universities on both criteria.
  • Faculty resources (20%) is determined in an equation that considers the faculty's pay, adjusted for cost-of-living, and degrees held, along with class size and proportion of full-time faculty. More than half of UHM classes have fewer than 20 students, and fewer than one in 10 courses enroll more than 50 students, placing UHM in the top 30 percent in both criteria. Ninety-three percent of UHM faculty are full-time, placing UHM in the top third of national universities.
  • Student selectivity (15%) is based on incoming students' characteristics and ratios of applicants to students admitted and admittees to those who enroll. UHM averages SAT test scores of 970/1170, for a ranking of 94. Thirty percent of UHM students graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, placing UHM at 88th. UHM's acceptance rate (69 percent) ranks 66th, placing it in the top 30 percent.
  • Financial resources (10%) is based on average per-student spending on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures during the 1996 and 1997 fiscal years.
  • Graduation rate performance (5%) is based on a U.S. News-developed formula to gauge graduation rates against expected performance based on student test scores and expenditures. UHM ranks well within the top half of national universities.
  • Alumni giving (5%) calculates the average percentage of alumni who donated to their schools during the 1996 and 1997 academic years. One in 10 UHM alumni donated, for a ranking of 108.

Manoa is proof that things can change and remain the same. Ranked 25th among public national universities last year, Manoa was ranked 50th this year with nearly identical data. U.S. News acknowledges such things are possible in its "frequently asked questions" prelude to the data:

"A college's rank changes when its performance (relative to one of its peers) changes on one or more measure of academic quality. In other words, a school's rank can change because its educational data changes or because data from other schools in the same category changes. In addition, some changes in rank reflect periodic changes in the U.S. News methodology made to improve the quality of the rankings. This makes it hard to identify the precise cause of a change."

In Manoa's case, academic reputation increased from 2.1 in 1997 to 2.7 in 1998. "It makes you wonder what our reputation score would have been if the survey had been conducted after the mouse cloning, Yorktown finding, neutrino discovering and other high-profile scientific stories that drew national attention to Manoa this summer," says Jim Manke, interim director for university relations.

Compared to last year's numbers, there was a slight increase in the acceptance rate and slight dips in alumni giving and the percentage of incoming freshmen who graduated in the top tenth of their high school classes. More recent data suggests that alumni giving number should increase in future surveys, Manke pointed out. The major change was the decrease in the graduation rate, but that, too, may be a one-year quirk given the numbers of students graduating over the past year, he said.

UH Hilo

The "top public" listing, which appears in the magazine but not on the U.S. News Web site, places UH Hilo behind only Evergreen State College in Washington and Texas A&M University-Galveston, both of which made the top 10 overall list for the 61 liberal arts institutions (public and private) in the broad western region.

  • Academic reputation (25%) based on a survey of presidents and admissions officers. UHH scored 3.3 on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished), tied with BYU-Hawai'i for the highest score in the second tier and tied for 11th overall (placing UHH in the top fifth).
  • Retention (25%) based on percentage of freshmen who return for a second year and the proportion of a class that earns a degree within six years. UHH had a 63 percent retention rate (placing 23rd) and graduated 23 percent of its students within six years.
  • Faculty resources (20%) the cost-of-living­adjusted pay and degrees held by faculty are factored into an equation along with class size and proportion of full-time faculty. Nearly half of UHH classes have fewer than 20 students, and only one in 20 courses enroll more than 50 students. The student-to-faculty ratio is 15 to one, for a campus rank of 27th, well within the top half. Ninety-nine percent of UHH faculty are full time.
  • Student selectivity (15%) based on students' test scores and high school class standing and the ratios of applicants to students admitted and students admitted to those who enroll. Nearly half UHH students ranked in the top 25 percent of their class, placing UHH in the top 30 percent. UHH's acceptance rate is 66 percent.
  • Financial resources (10%) average per-student spending on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures during the 1996 and 1997 fiscal years.
  • Alumni giving (5%) based on average percentage of alumni who donated to their schools during the 1996 and 1997 academic years.Three percent of UHH alumni donated, for a ranking of 45.

 

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