Parade magazine praises UW-Madison as part of ‘College A-list’

The University of Wisconsin–Madison continued to earn national praise this week, this time being listed as part of Parade magazine’s “College A-List.”

Forty-three top high-school counselors from around the country were asked to recommend outstanding schools that might not get as much attention as those in the Ivy League, and UW–Madison was featured in the “large state schools” category.

The magazine’s assessment of UW–Madison says: “A geographically diverse student population enjoys this spirited campus, which offers strong academic support, great libraries, and an attractive lakeside setting. Students report wonderful experience at Madison and learn to love cheese.”

It’s been a banner few weeks for UW–Madison, as several college rankings have been released.

Notably, UW–Madison notched a 17th-place ranking among world universities earlier this month in an annual ranking done by Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University.

The Academic Ranking of World Universities, which has been done annually since 2003, relies heavily on research performance – including alumni and staff winning Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals, highly cited researchers and papers published in Nature and Science, and other measures.

These rankings provide a valuable measure of the strength of the university’s faculty. UW–Madison is one of only six American public universities listed in the top 20. It was also the only Big Ten University that ranked in the top 20 universities.

Washington Monthly ranked the university 23rd in its 2010 national rankings. The rankings are based on a methodology that assesses three areas, including “social mobility,” which takes into account percentage of students receiving Pell Grants and graduation rates; research, which takes into account research expenditures and bachelor’s-to-doctorate rank, and; service, which examines several community service measures.

Earlier, U.S. News and World Report’s 2011 edition of America’s Best Colleges named UW–Madison 13th among public institutions.