NMSU was ranked more than 40 spaces higher than UNM in a recent report listing America’s best colleges.
The Center for College Affordability and Productivity ranked UNM No. 239 and NMSU No. 193 in its second-annual list published Aug. 5 in Forbes Magazine. Four thousand universities were considered and 600 made it on the list, according to authors Richard Vedder and David Ewalt. A second Forbes list of America’s 100 best public schools had UNM at No. 38 and NMSU at No. 25.
“It’s great that both universities are on the list, but difficult to pinpoint the exact reasons behind the relative positions,” Provost Suzanne Ortega said in a statement. “The important point is that New Mexico students who want to stay in state for college can choose between good and good.”
In the list of public schools, the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Technology is ranked No. 40 and Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colo., is No. 41. In both lists, the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is No. 1.
UNM rose 51 spots in CCAP’s ranking from last year. Ortega attributes the improvement to increased graduation rates.
“We are pleased that Forbes recognized UNM’s commitment to student success in their latest ranking,” she said. “We believe UNM’s leap from 290 in 2008 to 239 in 2009 is due to our dedicated faculty and our efforts to improve graduation rates.”
Ortega said both schools had similar graduation rates. The data compiled for individual schools was not available online.
Criteria for ranking were student evaluations, post-graduation success, student debt incurred and the percent of students and faculty who have received nationally competitive awards.
The student evaluations were collected from RateMyProfessors.com. The Web site has 1,381 professors listed for UNM and 593 listed for NMSU. Ortega said the online resource is not a surefire way to determine the attitude of the student body.
“It’s nice that the ranking considers student evaluations, but since RateMyProfessors.com is self-selected, it isn’t a scientific comparison,” she said.
“You wouldn’t know if more students are happy with their professors or more are reporting their satisfaction. Rating well in such areas is a good sign, but not a precise measure.”
Richard Vedder and David Ewalt, the list’s authors, said in the introduction to the list on the Forbes Web site that the ranking is attuned to students’ needs.
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“To our way of thinking, a good college is one that meets student needs,” according to the introduction. “While some college rankings are based partly on school reputation, as evaluated by college administrators, and on the amount of money spent, we focus on things which directly concern incoming students.”
Junior Jameson Ray said UNM’s position on the list was not surprising.
“Instructors and the staff are
definitely on students’ sides and try as best they can to meet the students’ needs,” he said. “There are still obvious changes that can still be made to the University as a whole, like dealing with the bureaucracy.”
CCAP’s criteria for the list of “America’s Best Colleges”
• 25 percent of the ratings is based on 4 million student evaluations of courses and instructors from the Web site RateMyProfessors.com.
• 25 percent is based on the post-graduation success of graduates, including enrollment-adjusted entries in Who’s Who in America.
• 20 percent is based on the debt incurred per student over four years.
• 30 percent is based on the number of students or faculty, adjusted for enrollment, who have won nationally competitive awards like the Rhodes Scholarships or Nobel Prizes.
~Forbes.com
