UC Santa Barbara is among the best public universities in the nation, once again ranking highly on U.S. News & World Report’s annual listing of the “Top 30 Public National Universities.” UCSB was ranked No. 10, moving up a spot in U.S. News’ rankings. On the magazine’s list of “Best National Universities,” which includes both public and private institutions, UCSB also did well, moving up to No. 40 in a tie with Pennsylvania's Lehigh University.
The rankings are part of U.S. News’ 2015 edition of Best Colleges, which includes data on nearly 1,800 institutions nationwide. The colleges and universities are ranked on about 16 measures of academic excellence, including research, faculty resources, and commitment to instruction.
UCSB’s graduate students and the high quality of its graduate programs no doubt contributed to the top rankings. Graduate Division Dean Carol Genetti was pleased but not surprised that UCSB ranked so highly.
“It is exciting to see that UCSB is again ranked within the top 10 public universities,” said Dean Genetti. “Our recipe for success includes our highly distinguished faculty, brilliant graduate students from across the world, and remarkable undergraduates who are eager to join in the research enterprise. But especially important is our campus leadership that works to enable discovery and scholarship, and brings to fruition the creative ideas and cross-disciplinary programs that our campus is known for.”
University of California campuses dominated the top 10 list of public national universities. UC Berkeley was No. 1; UCLA placed No 2 in a tie with the University of Virginia; UC San Diego was No. 8; and UC Davis was in the No. 9 spot. UC Irvine followed closely behind UCSB at No. 11 on the public national universities list.
UCSB’s College of Engineering was also recognized, placing No. 20 among engineering schools at the nation’s public universities.
For more information, read the Office of Public Affairs’ news release, “A Top 10 University.” Also, read U.S. News’ blog article and its complete rankings.
Congratulations to UC Santa Barbara and all the other UC campuses that made this distinguished list!