Vanderbilt University made the top 20 list for the fifth consecutive year in rankings released Friday of the best national universities as selected by U.S. News & World Report.
The Commons, a program for freshmen that Vanderbilt is launching in 2008-09, was named a “Program to Look For” in the First-Year Experiences category.
Vanderbilt tied with the University of Notre Dame at No. 19, below a tie for No. 17 between Emory University and Rice University, and a three-way deadlock for 14th place between Brown University, Johns Hopkins University and Northwestern University. Last year Vanderbilt tied for 18th place with Emory.
The U.S. News survey also recognized Vanderbilt for its economic diversity, citing that 19 percent of undergraduates receive federal Pell grants. Vanderbilt was named the 11th best education “deal” of all national universities, based on the quality of programs and the average level of need-based financial aid awarded per student.
The School of Engineering remains the 43rd best in the nation, tied with Brown, Michigan State University and Notre Dame.
Highlights of the rankings will be published in the Aug. 27 issue of U.S. News & World Report, which is scheduled to be on newsstands Aug. 20.
U.S. News & World Report’s 2008 top 25 national universities:
1) Princeton University
2) Harvard University
3) Yale University
4) Stanford University
5) California Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania
7) Massachusetts Institute of Technology
8) Duke University
9) Columbia University, University of Chicago
11) Dartmouth College
12) Cornell University, Washington University in St. Louis
14) Brown University, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University
17) Emory University, Rice University
19) University of Notre Dame, Vanderbilt University
21) University of California-Berkeley
22) Carnegie Mellon University
23) Georgetown University, University of Virginia
25) University of California-Los Angeles, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu