In their latest closely watched but controversial "America's Best Colleges" issue, "U.S. News and World Report" ranked UB in the third tier among major national universities.
A special report in the Sept. 1 issue of "U.S. News" ranked 248 large universities. The third tier included schools that scored between 127th and 190th overall. "U.S. News" did not rank schools individually within this group.
According to the survey, "several measures of academic quality" are used to form the annual ranking. Faculty resources, peer assessment, and graduation and retention rates are the main variables.
Kerry S. Grant, vice provost for academic affairs, said while the overall rankings were flawed, the report's data showed UB is a strong institution.
"If you look at what they printed with an informed eye, you will see that we are a good university, classed with good universities," he said.
The State University of New York's other university centers ranked slightly ahead of UB: SUNY-Binghamton ranked 78th overall, SUNY-Stony Brook placed 117th and Albany finished 123rd.
Princeton University and Harvard University tied for first place.
In response to UB's relatively poor rank, Grant stressed the importance of UB's peer assessment score-a figure that U.S. News also refers to as "national reputation."
"If you look across the nation and ask how people perceive us, we're a little above Albany and right there with Binghamton and Stony Brook," he said.
Many students expressed surprise with the rankings. Erica Carlos, a senior psychology major, said she thought this report did not reflect the real quality of UB.
"I came here because of UB's academic quality," Carlos said. "It's a shock that we're considered such a great research university and still rank third tier."
Grant said while certain scores, such as peer assessment scores and SAT scores, are high, some of the statistics, such as the graduation rate, are problematic.
"We are a large university in an urban area," he said. "In our environment, and other major universities in urban centers, we draw a large number of students who have no intention of graduating within four or five years."
Grant suggested that U.S. News take a university's location into account when developing their report.
Becky Globus, a senior English and Italian major, was not surprised with the rankings but dismissed them as irrelevant.
"I think at UB it really depends on the department," Globus said. "Also, people who are going to come here are going to come here anyway, no matter where we are ranked."
Elsewhere in the report, in an article entitled "Inside the in crowd," UB was named as one of America's "hot" colleges. U.S. News credited the taping of MTV's reality shows "Fraternity Life" and "Sorority Life 2" with the surge of interest in the school.
"High school students from around the country pestered admissions officers for details about the show," the article stated. "Traffic to the prospective students page of the university's Web site tripled, and a larger-than-expected percentage of kids who were accepted decided to attend."
UB officials have dismissed the impact of the rankings on admissions. Like Grant, Patricia Armstrong, UB's director of admissions, stressed the importance of UB's national reputation.
"We have a very solid reputation," she said. "People know the value of a UB education."
Armstrong added that she does not expect a decrease of applications because of the report.
Kevin Brady, a senior accounting major, said he thinks the third tier ranking could hurt UB's ability to attract top freshmen.
"Even though the rankings are flawed, a lot of high school students put a lot of weight on them," Brady said. "It's not going to help our recruitment."
According to Grant, however, people in the academic community do not take the rankings seriously.
"There is enormous resentment for these rankings among the higher education community," Grant said. "They are a commercial vehicle with significant impact but little validity."
In the past UB has boasted high rankings when certain programs, particularly graduate programs, have placed well. The Office of University Development's Web site states that "U.S. News" ranked the School of Pharmacy first in the Northeast and the School of Dental Medicine sixth in the nation.
Like many students, Globus prefers to disregard the rankings completely.
"It's nice here," she said. "I like it. So forget about their rankings."
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
