SRU earns prestigious 'Best Regional University' and 'Best Public University' U.S. News & World Report rankings

Photo by Joey Anzalone, a senior communication and digital media production major from New Castle.

Sept. 12, 2017

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - In rankings released today, Slippery Rock University has been named among the 2018 "Best Regional Universities - North" by U.S. News & World Report. It is the ninth consecutive year that SRU has earned the accolade.  

SRU was also honored as one of only 26 "Top Public Schools - Regional Universities (North)."

"To continually be recognized as one of the nation's best is something that all students, faculty and staff should celebrate," said Philip Way, SRU interim president. "It's clear that as a team, each unit is pulling in the same direction to accomplish our goal of providing a quality, affordable education to an ever-growing number of students thanks to our continued success in the areas of recruitment and retention."

The University ranked among the top 80 regional universities in the North. According to the magazine, the 659 universities in the regional category were ranked against their peer group in one of four regions - North, South, Midwest and West - because "in general they tend to draw students most heavily from surrounding states."

Of the 659 regional universities ranked, 259 are public, 388 are private and 12 are for-profit.

According to U.S. News, regional universities are defined as "(those) institutions that ... provide a full range of undergraduate majors and master's programs; the difference (being) that they offer (fewer) doctoral programs."

Rankings are based on several key measures of quality, with scores for each measure weighted to arrive at a final overall score, including:

-Graduation and retention rates, 22.5 percent.

-Assessment of excellence, 22.5 percent.

-Faculty resources, 20 percent.

-Student selectivity, 12.5 percent.

-Financial resources, 10 percent.

-Graduation rate performance*, 7.5 percent.

-Alumni giving, 5 percent.

(*The difference between actual and predicted graduation rates.)

A complete listing of the U.S. News & World Report college rankings can be found at: https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/regional-universities-north.

MEDIA CONTACT: Robb King | 724.738.2199 | robb.king@sru.edu