The University of Connecticut is one of the 50 best universities in America, public or private, according to rankings released this week by The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n
Ranking highly in affordability, the average time it takes students to earn degrees, and the value a degree adds to graduates\u2019 salaries, UConn was ranked 46th<\/sup> overall<\/a> by the Journal, the second highest ranking of any Connecticut school and higher than many peer institutions across the U.S. That ranking puts UConn at #9 overall among all public universities in the country.<\/p>\n Although the Journal has been scoring American universities since 2016, this set of rankings is the first under a new methodology<\/a> adopted by the newspaper and its data-gathering partners, which aims to evaluate universities by their effect on students\u2019 lives rather than more esoteric metrics.<\/p>\n \u201cWe no longer reward colleges\u2019 wealth or reputation in and of themselves. Gone is the survey of academics on schools\u2019 reputations,\u201d wrote Harry Carr<\/a>, rankings editor for the Journal. \u201cGone are the rewards for instructional spending and the assumption that the quality of education is largely dictated by how expensive it is to produce.<\/p>\n \u201cIn their place we\u2019ve expanded the importance of student outcomes: graduation rates and graduate salaries. Critically, we now put greater emphasis on measuring the value added by colleges\u2014not simply measuring their students\u2019 success, but focusing on the contribution the college makes to that success.\u201d<\/p>\n Under the revised criteria, student outcomes account for 70% of universities\u2019 scores, followed by the learning environment at 20% and diversity at 10%.<\/p>\n For its graduation rate, the Journal gave UConn a score of 90 out of 100; according to University research, the average time it takes for UConn undergraduates to earn their degrees is 4.1 years<\/a>, placing UConn at #1 among public universities.<\/p>\n The Journal also found the value UConn adds to graduates\u2019 salaries to be impressive, scoring the University 82 out of 100 and calculating that a UConn degree on average boosts graduates\u2019 pay by more than $47,000.<\/p>\n