Rutgers places No. 23 in national public college ranking, ahead of No. 31 Penn State

In a report from Business First yesterday morning, Rutgers was ranked as the 23rd-best national public college out of more than 500 institutions. 

The University placed ahead of other Big Ten conference schools such as Pennsylvania State University, which ranked 31st, and Michigan State University, which ranked 45th. Rutgers also improved slightly from last year's ranking, where it placed 25th. Other Big Ten conference schools, such as University of Maryland and the University of Minnesota, placed ahead of Rutgers, ranking 13th and 17th, respectively.

Business First formulated the rankings by considering factors such as the University's admissions process, retention and graduation rates, alumni earnings, resources, affordability of tuition and housing, according to its website. In a comprehensive statistical profile of Rutgers, the University had a 57.8-percent acceptance rate in 2017, 93.6-percent retention rate and instructional spending expenditures of more than $800 million dollars. 

The website also reported that after six years of entering Rutgers, 75.6 percent of students earned more than $25,000 and after 10 years of entering Rutgers, median annual earnings were approximately $57,900. 

The ranking also only considered public schools in the country because "those institutions generally offer the least expensive path toward a college degree." 

All the data collected for the study was from the National Center for Education Statistics and U.S. Census Bureau's 2017 American Community Survey, with Business First calculating all the rates and percentages for its ratings. Out of eight categories, the one that weighed the most heavily on its ranking was "advancement," which took into account retention rate, four-year graduation rate and six-year graduation rate.