August 22, 2008
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill ranks fifth among the nation’s best public universities for the eighth consecutive year, according to U.S. News & World Report magazine.

“Carolina is consistently recognized among the five best public universities in America,” said Chancellor Holden Thorp. “We find value in assessing the various measures that determine such rankings. In the case of U.S. News, we are most interested in results from areas including faculty resources and student success. Our focus is on retaining and attracting excellent faculty, who are the key to recruiting the very best students from North Carolina and beyond to Chapel Hill.”

The new rankings appear in the 2009 edition of the magazine’s “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook and will be posted at www.usnews.com Friday (Aug. 22) at 12:01 a.m. The Sept. 1 edition of the magazine and the guidebook hit newsstands early next week.

Among public universities, Berkeley was first, followed by Virginia (second) UCLA (third), Michigan (fourth) and UNC (fifth). Overall, Carolina ranked 30th among public and private national universities. In that list, other top publics ranked between 21st (Berkeley) and 26th (Michigan). UNC tied with Tufts University at 28th last year. The same 25 privates and five publics have appeared in the magazine’s top 30 spots for the last five years.

The rankings, which are dominated by private universities, are based on a formula factoring in responses to opinion surveys about academic quality from peer campus presidents, provosts or admissions officials. Objective data covers areas such as student graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.

Other U.S. News rankings this year assessed academic quality and affordability, retention and graduation rates, faculty resources, undergraduate business school programs and innovative undergraduate education programs. UNC results included the following:

  • 1st among public universities for the fourth consecutive year and ninth overall for the third straight year in “Great Schools, Great Prices,” based on academic quality and the net cost of attendance for a student receiving average need-based financial aid.
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School of Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.

 

 

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