U.S. News and World Report this week released its 2018 Best Colleges rankings. Marquette is ranked 90th, a slight shift from 86th last year. Marquette again made the list for Best Colleges for Veterans, ranked 52, and Best Value Schools, ranked 54. The university is again included as an “A-plus School for B Students.”
“To be recognized as a Top 100 university, as Marquette has been since the start of the U.S. News rankings, is indeed an honor,” Provost Dan Myers said. “It’s worth noting that our movement in the rankings this year is a statistically insignificant one. These sorts of minor up-and-down shifts will always occur from year-to-year, and it’s important that we don’t view them too critically. Rankings are only one way we measure our success as a university.”
Myers added that the shift can be largely attributed to a change in U.S. News’ methodology as it relates to graduation rate performance — the change caused Marquette’s ranking in that category to drop.
The university is also recognized among U.S. News’ college- and program-specific rankings. In the Best Undergraduate Business Programs list, the College of Business Administration is ranked 91, down from 77 last year but outperforming its No. 93 ranking from two years ago. Myers pointed out that business school rankings are based solely on a peer assessment score, and the movements the college has seen the past two years are the result of a tenth of a point shift in that score.
Additionally, three business specialty programs were again ranked in the top 25 nationally: real estate at 9th, supply chain management at 14th and finance at 24th.
The Opus College of Engineering moved up in the rankings among Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs. The college this year is ranked 110, up from 116 last year and 124 the year prior.