College Rankings: SoCal Has Three of the Tops

Caltech ranked 10th on U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the nation’s best colleges released today, while UCLA tied for 23rd and USC tied for 25th.

Caltech also ranked 10th last year.

USC slipped slightly in the rankings. In last year’s report, USC and UCLA were tied for 23rd in the nation along with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Virginia.

This year, UCLA and University of Virginia tied for 23rd, while USC and Carnegie Mellon were tied at 25th.

The top 10 universities in the nation are the same as last year, although in slightly different order. Princeton tops this year’s list, followed by Harvard; Yale; Columbia, Stanford and the University of Chicago tied for fourth; Massachusetts Institute of Technology in seventh place; Duke and the University of Pennsylvania tied for eighth; and Caltech at 10th.

UC Berkeley ranked 20th on the list. UC San Diego ranked 37th, while UC Davis tied for 38th with Case Western Reserve University, and UC Santa Barbara tied for 40th with Lehigh University. UC Irvine is in a five-way tie for 42nd.

The magazine ranks universities on a variety of factors, including cost, availability of financial aid, academic programs, sports, activities, retention and graduation rates.

--City News Service

PHOTO Patch file photo.