I’m back. There hasn’t been much to post lately. But now, U.S. News and World Report has released its new college rankings (http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges). I found the online version somewhat difficult to navigate because there were three relevant lists to browse. I’ll go buy the print version today, but here’s some basic information. The criteria were retention, graduation rates and strength of staff (I don’t know how that’s measured).

One of the things I noticed is that SDSU is the only CSU that made it into the top 200 on the national list. It’s 183rd, but it’s in there with some good schools. I think one of the reasons is that they have stopped accepting students in need of remediation. The students they accept are more college ready, and therefore more likely to graduate.

Anyway, here is how the UC’s did in the national ranking. I was a bit surprised at how high UCSB is and how low UCSC was.
UCB 22
UCLA 25
UCSD 35
UCD 39
UCSB 39
UCI 41
UCSC 72
UCR 94

The regional ranking covered the entire western half of the United States, which is sort of ridiculous. Here’s how the CSU’s fared there. Remember, SDSU isn’t included on this list.
Calpoly SLO 6
CSULB 24
CSU Chico 30
Calpoly Pomona 32
Somoma State 35
CUS Fullerton 37
Humboldt State 37
CSU Fresno 44
San Jose State 44
CSU Stanislaus 48
SFSU 51
CSU Sacramento 62
CSU San Bern. 62
CSU Northridge 77
CSU San Marcos 84

The rest are considered “Tier 2” schools. The only thing that stood out there was that San Francisco State is so low. I wonder what it was in years past. I can’t help but think they are losing students because they can’t get classes. But then, that’s probably affecting most of these schools. I’ll see if I can find some more interesting information later.