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University of Hawai'i |
(808) 956-8856 Telephone |
For Immediate Release: |
September 1, 2000 |
Contact: Dean O. Smith, Sr. VP and Executive Vice Chancellor, UH Manoa, 956-7486 Rose Tseng, Chancellor, UH Hilo, (808) 974-7444 Jim Manke, University and Community Relations, 956-6106
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| U.S. News and World Report Lists UH Manoa in Third Tier Among Top National Universities and UH Hilo Third Best in the West |
Two University of Hawai`i campuses are ranked among the nation's best in the new U.S. News and World Report College Rankings issue published on the magazine's Web page this morning.
UH Manoa and UH Hilo are measured against more than 650 peer institutions in their respective categories in the annual college guide. Supporting data show virtually no change from rankings issued last year.
UH Manoa is again listed in the third tier of 228 national universities. The Manoa campus reputation score- the most heavily weighted factor in the rankings- remains the same as last year at 2.7 of a possible 5.0. National universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and Ph.D. degrees, and emphasize faculty research.
Among other data reported for UH Manoa:
- Percentage of freshmen who returned for a second year - 81%, up from 80% last year
- Percent of classes with fewer than 20 students - 55%, up from 52% last year
- Percent of classes with more than 50 students - 9%, same as last year
- Percent of faculty who are full time - 97%, up from 92% last year
- Student/faculty ratio - 11/1, same as last year
- SAT scores of incoming first time students in the 25th and 75th percentile - 990/1190, down slightly from 990/1210 last year
- Incoming students in the top ten percent of their high school classes - 31%, down from 32% last year
- Alumni giving remains at 14%, the same as in the previous year
The University of Hawai`i-Hilo remains ranked third among public liberal arts colleges in the Western U.S. The 428 regional liberal arts colleges measured by U.S. News, like the national colleges, focus on undergraduate education, although UH Hilo has added selected master's degrees in the last few years. Regional liberal arts colleges are further subdivided by geographical region for purposes of the rankings. The Hilo campus follows Evergreen State (Washington) and Texas A&M-Galveston in this category.
Data for the Hilo campus remain virtually unchanged from the previous year:
- Hilo's reputation score improved from 3.2 to 3.3 out of a possible 5.0.
For comparison, Brigham Young University-Hawai`i, which placed 11th among all western liberal arts colleges, had a reputation score of 3.5
- Fully 98% of UHH faculty are full time, and more that half of the classes taught there (52%) have fewer than 20 students; only 4% have more than 50 students.
- The campus has become more selective in its admissions policy, admitting only 60% of applicants (down from 68% last year). Forty-three percent of them graduated in the top quarter of their high school classes.
- Eleven percent of alumni gave money to the school.
Small college rankings for other institutions in Hawai`i show Hawai`i Pacific University ranked in the third tier and Chaminade University in the fourth tier in western regional universities.
Topping this year's rankings for national universities (public and private institutions) are Princeton, Harvard and Yale. Top public universities in this year's rankings are the University of California-Berkeley, University of Virginia and University of California-Los Angeles.
Details of the rankings are posted on the magazine's Web page at www.usnews.com. The "Best Colleges issue - which includes the rankings - is expected to be on newsstands next week.
>From U.S. News and World Report:
The method that U.S. News uses to rank colleges and universities consists of three basic steps. The colleges are categorized by mission and region, and we gather data from each on up to 16 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects our judgment about how much each measure matters. Finally, the colleges in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score. We publish the ranks of the top schools; the others are grouped into [unranked, alphabetically-listed] tiers.
