UW-Madison ranked high by U.S. News, Kiplinger’s

UW-Madison picked eighth-best in nation by U.S. News

UW–Madison has been named the eighth-best public national university in the 12th annual “America’s Best Colleges” guidebook, published by U.S. News & World Report.

That was the same ranking UW–Madison received in the 1997 U.S. News ranking. Other Big Ten universities in the top 25 this year are Michigan (fourth), Illinois (10th), Penn State (11th), Minnesota (17th) and Ohio State (23rd). Tied for first are the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Virginia.

Among all national universities, including private institutions, UW–Madison ranks 36th, compared to 38th last year. Harvard, Princeton and Yale tied for first.

“As in past U.S. News rankings,” says Vice Chancellor John Torphy, “UW-Madison continues to rank among the nation’s top five public universities in academic reputation, one of the key criteria used by the magazine.” Other schools in that group are UC-Berkeley, Virginia, UCLA and Michigan.

The U.S. News guidebook will hit newsstands and bookstores on Monday, Aug. 24. All rankings are available on the Web.

Kiplinger’s rates UW–Madison sixth-best in value

In its September issue, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine ranks UW–Madison sixth-best among the top 100 values in state universities. The magazine compared cost, quality and financial-aid measures in calculating the rankings.

“Ratings always should be taken with a grain of salt, but this latest ranking used straightforward cost data and took into account our outstanding reputation,” says Vice Chancellor for Administration John Torphy. “To be in the top 10 certainly makes sense.”

Three other UW System institutions made the list – UW-Eau Claire (62), UW-La Crosse (64) and UW-Stevens Point (77) – leading the magazine to identify Wisconsin as one of the best states for parents to send their children to college.

Topping the list was the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary, the University of Illinois- Champaign Urbana and the University of Florida. Rounding out the top 10 after UW–Madison are the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, Georgia Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Binghamton.

The magazine examined such factors as tuition, room and board, graduation and retention rates, test scores, admission rates, average financial aid packages and the average debt of graduates.