UConn holds a strong No. 26 spot among public institutions in this year\u2019s U.S. News and World Report rankings, demonstrating its consistent excellence even as the higher education landscape nationwide has reached fiercely competitive levels.<\/p>\n
The rankings released Monday include excellent showings in UConn\u2019s high-priority imperatives assessing student success, including its exceptional rate of retaining students after the first year and its consistently solid six-year graduation rates.<\/p>\n
In another key area, UConn graduate indebtedness continues to decrease, both in amounts owed and the percentage of students leaving with loans to repay. That underscores UConn\u2019s commitment to providing strong financial aid to qualifying students and striving for economic inclusivity.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo ranking fully captures an institution, but this is one measure that prospective students and families do look at as they consider their options. Our position this year is very respectable and UConn remains among the best public universities in the nation,\u201d UConn Interim President Radenka Maric says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat said, we are not satisfied and strongly believe that we must continually make the investments and strategic choices necessary to ensure we rise in the rankings in the years ahead,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
UConn\u2019s strong showing in this year\u2019s U.S. News rankings comes despite demographic changes that have shrunk the nation\u2019s high school graduate pools, heightening competition among institutions; changes in state aid and other financial indicators; and other factors, including lingering effects of COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Despite those challenges, UConn drew an unprecedented pool of more than 43,000 applicants for the Class of 2026. It welcomed a record number<\/a> of 4,075 first-year students starting the academic year at Storrs last month \u2013 more than 27% of whom are the first generation in their families to attend college — and another 1,750 enrolled in the regional campuses.<\/p>\n And although U.S. News does not measure enrollment trends among first-generation college students<\/a>, UConn\u2019s successes in that area and others show that a holistic view is needed to fully measure UConn or any institution beyond any single ranking system.<\/p>\n \u201cA truly excellent university offers its students the opportunity to discover and pursue their purpose, and to support that exploration with life-transformative education,\u201d Maric says. \u201cRankings can help us assess the quality and breadth of our offerings, but the true measure of success is that our students are entering the world prepared to live the life they envision for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n UConn\u2019s ranking has been steadily improving since 2000, when it was No. 38 among public institutions, and it spent the past 10 years in the top 25. It is tied for this year\u2019s No. 26 ranking with Texas A&M University and UMass-Amherst.<\/p>\n Although UConn\u2019s ranking fell just short of the top 25 this year, it was not due to a dip in performance or any notable declines. In fact, UConn\u2019s scores remained consistently high in most areas, particularly key indicators of student success.<\/p>\n Rather, several other universities have stepped up their game over the last few years and performed better than expected in some areas. Those advances, combined with changes in some metrics in the rankings, resulted in some institutions bumping others out of the top 25 and some, like UConn, being bumped.<\/p>\n Although schools jockey for position that way each year, those that perform better on graduation rates than U.S. News predicted received the benefit of being viewed as \u201cpunching above their weight,\u201d and can achieve notable gains across just a few years.<\/p>\n In fact, UConn benefited from that perception as it moved from the 30s into the 20s over the years and settled into its current status in the pantheon of high achievers.<\/p>\n However, as those up-and-coming schools become UConn\u2019s direct competitors, the University will need innovation, flexibility, and investment to help move from its excellent but stable status back into being a dynamic climber, University officials say.<\/p>\n \u201cUConn continues to provide an excellent academic experience that serves our residents and our state well, delivering the best outcomes with the resources that we have available,\u201d says Lloyd Blanchard, UConn\u2019s interim executive vice president for administration and chief financial officer.<\/p>\n \u201cWe operate in a highly competitive national market, however, and any notable gains that our competitors make will have an effect on UConn\u2019s ranking if we sit still,\u201d he says, noting that while U.S. News and other rankings are not the primary measure of any institution, they do play a role in families\u2019 perceptions of schools their children might consider attending.<\/p>\n The U.S. News ranking is one of many tools that UConn uses to consider areas to improve, all of which will help UConn\u2019s next permanent president and its leadership as they engage in new strategic planning to bring the University to the next level.<\/p>\n That decision-making will also be informed by data from several other internal and independent external research sources, including some recent studies in which the University stood out for its economic inclusivity and students\u2019 return on investment in a UConn education.<\/p>\n Georgetown University\u2019s Center on Education and the Workforce, which analyzed more than 4,500 institutions<\/a> throughout the U.S., recently found that a UConn education provides more than $1.52 million in return on investment over a 40-year working career.<\/p>\n At the same time, a recent study<\/a> by the Third Way research organization puts UConn in the top tier of schools offering strong economic mobility for students with fiscal constraints.<\/p>\n That tier encompasses the top 20% of institutions that enroll relatively large percentages of low- and moderate-income students, as measured by qualifying for federal Pell grant aid; and whether they provide an education that prepares those students to move up the economic ladder.<\/p>\n UConn also is number one in the country when it comes to the time in which students earn their degrees<\/a>: an average of 4.1 years, a place shared with four other public research universities in the country, according to the UConn Retention & Graduation Task Force\u2019s most recent analysis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Those factors all play into attempts to limit graduate indebtedness, a metric in which UConn also performs strongly in the U.S. News analysis: The average indebtedness fell by more than $1,800 over the last two years, and dropped from 56% of alumni with loans to repay down to 52%.<\/p>\n According to the newest U.S. News rankings, UConn also continues to show consistently strong performance in several areas:<\/p>\n \u2022 The retention of first-year students is 93%, one of the highest in the nation. It has moved between 93% and 94% over the past several years, remaining far above the national average<\/a> of 82% at four-year public universities.<\/p>\n \u2022 A consistent 84% of UConn students earn their undergraduate degrees in six years or less, markedly higher than the national average of 63% among public institutions.<\/p>\n \u2022 UConn\u2019s peer institutions also continue to hold a positive and steady opinion of its academic reputation as reported in survey responses from presidents, provosts, and admissions leaders. U.S. News officials say that reputation is important to help capture advances that aren\u2019t otherwise easy to quantify, such as institutional innovation and a range of other areas.<\/p>\n Another measure of the U.S. News ranking, the percentage of living alumni who donate to their institutions, counts for 3% of the total. In UConn\u2019s case, a two-year average of about 7% of living alumni with bachelor\u2019s degrees donated to the University in the timeframe considered, the same as last year.<\/p>\n Many peer institutions experience modest numbers in that category, reflecting generational changes in how alumni choose to support and engage with their universities.<\/p>\n