By SUSAN JONES
The University of Pittsburgh’s overall rankings in the U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Colleges list dropped slightly from last year, but a couple programs saw big jumps up the list.
Overall, Pitt ranked 23rd for public universities (down from 20th last year) and 62nd among all U.S. universities (down from 59 last year).
The U.S. News & World Report evaluates more than 1,450 colleges and universities. For the 2022-23 edition, U.S. News did not add new indicators or modify the weights of existing indicators for the overall rankings. The only significant change was that for schools that did not report fall 2021 SAT/ACT scores from at least 50 percent of their new entrants, “pre-pandemic” fall 2020 scores were used.
The most weight is given to graduation and retention rates (22 percent); undergraduate academic reputation based on a peer assessment survey (20 percent); faculty resources for the 2020-21 year (20 percent); and financial resources per student (10 percent).
Pitt’s undergraduate business programs had the biggest jump from 49th last year to 34th this year. The School of Computing and Information’s undergraduate computer science program rose six spots to No. 54. And for the first time, Pitt was listed on the best undergraduate research/creative projects, coming in at 39th.
Other rankings included:
Best colleges for veterans: 34th (from 29th in 2021)
Best undergraduate engineering programs: 54th (up from 56th last year)
Nursing: 15th (down from 7th last year)
Undergraduate biomedical engineering: 25th (the same as last year)
Leading the list overall this year were: Princeton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton. Columbia University dropped out of the top 10 to 18th after an investigation by one of its math professors showed that data on class sizes and graduation rates was “inaccurate, dubious, or highly misleading,” according to The Hill.
Among public schools, the University of California at Berkeley, UCLA and Michigan topped the list.
Forbes rankings
The University of Pittsburgh didn’t fare quite as well in the Forbes list of America’s top colleges, which placed Pitt at 92nd among public universities and 209th overall. The Forbes list was released on Aug. 30.
According to the magazine, colleges and universities were ranked on the return on investment and outcomes they delivered for their students. Schools placed well if their students graduated on time, secured high salaries and low debt, and went on to have successful careers. In 2021, several new measures and datasets were added. The data was reframed to better gauge alumni salaries, a new metric was added to determine how quickly graduates were able to pay off the cost of college, and schools were judged based on how well they were serving low-income students.
Four University of California schools led the list — Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego and UC-Davis. Berkeley had average student debt of $7,098 and median 10-year salary as $154,000. Pitt’s average debt was $10,248 with a median 10-year salary of $110,700.
The top school overall on the list was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which had average debt of $10,070 and 10-year salary of $173,700. It also had an average grant aid of $53,162.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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