Saint Mary’s listed in U.S. News ‘Best National Universities’ category

WINONA, Minn. — U.S. News & World Report has ranked Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in its “Best National Universities” survey for 2011. The annual listing of more than 1,400 schools was released today and is available online at www.usnews.com.

Saint Mary’s is ranked 183rd in the first tier of the U.S. News “National Universities” category, which includes 262 schools overall. The second tier schools in this category are not ranked numerically.

Taking top honors in the “National Universities” category are Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University. Saint Mary’s, St. Thomas and the University of Minnesota are the only Minnesota schools represented in this category.

Bob Conover, vice president for communication, noted that this is the third national survey in recent weeks to list Saint Mary's. He said the surveys show that “students enjoy a great academic experience at Saint Mary's, and they're pleased with the results.”

U.S. News designates schools as National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, and Regional Colleges.

The “National Universities” category includes American universities (public and private) that offer a full range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral degrees.

Winona State University and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse were listed as first tier schools in the Regional Universities — Midwest category.

The method that U.S. News uses to rank colleges and universities consists of three basic steps. Schools are divided primarily by mission and region, and data is gathered from each institution on indicators of academic excellence. The indicators fall into seven categories: assessment by administrators at peer institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rate performance. The indicators include input measures that reflect a school’s student body, its faculty, and its financial resources, along with outcome measures that signal how well the institution does its job of educating students.