Rutgers beats Penn State in National University rankings

Rutgers ranked 56th out of 312 Nationally Ranked Universities by News and World Report — jumping 13 spots from last year.

The University tied with Ohio State University and Purdue University. In 2018, Rutgers tied for 69th place with five other schools — American University, Stevens Institute of Technology, Texas A&M University, University of Minnesota and Virginia Tech, according to rankings compiled by U.S. World Report. 

Rutgers outranked Pennsylvania State University by three spots, the first time it has done so since the rankings started in 1988, and beat out the University of Connecticut and the University of Maryland, according to the official Rutgers subreddit. 

“That makes us the best public university in the Northeast,” according to the post. 

Rutgers—Newark tied for 115th place with Auburn University, Arizona State University and the University of Tennessee. It jumped 18 spots from last year when it tied six other schools — Louisiana State University, Mercer University, The New School, University of Arkansas, the University of Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky. 

Rutgers—Camden also made rankings as it tied for 28th place in the North Regional University list with six other schools — Ramapo College of New Jersey, Assumption College, Monmouth University, Salve Regina University, Springfield University and St. Francis University. This is a slight decrease from last year’s 25th place slot.

U.S. News and World Report ranks colleges on 16 measures of academic quality. In order to make valid comparisons, colleges are divided into four categories National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges — the latter two are split into subcategories North, South, East and West for a total 10 categories, according to an article from U.S. News and World Report. 

Rutgers—New Brunswick and Rutgers—Newark are categorized as National Universities because they “offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs, and emphasize faculty research,” according to U.S. News and World Report. 

Rutgers—Camden is considered as a Northern Regional University because it “offers a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs,” according to the article.

“A university is not successful if it does not graduate its students, which is why the Best Colleges rankings place the greatest value on outcomes, including graduation and retention rates,” said Robert Morse, chief data strategist at U.S. News.

Editor's Note: A correction has been made to better reflect Rutgers—Camden's ranking, as it was ranked in a separate list than Rutgers—New Brunswick and Rutgers—Newark.