Fordham Bounces Back in US News & World Report Rankings

By Laura Sanicola

This article is being updated as more information is released by the university.

Fordham University rose in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 edition of “Best Colleges”. The list, released Wednesday morning, shows Fordham ranked at No. 60 in the national universities category with an overall score of 59 out of 100. Fordham shares the No. 60 spot with Syracuse University, University of Maryland College Park, University of Connecticut, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Purdue University West Lafayette. Fordham jumped six places from its No. 66 ranking in the 2016 list. The school was ranked No. 58 in 2015, No. 57 in 2014 and No. 52 in 2013.

Fordham also placed No. 77 in the best business program rankings and No. 42 in high school counselor rankings.

In an official university statement, Bob Howe, senior director of communications at the university, said the ranking is an overdue acknowledgement. 

“While it’s satisfying that Fordham has risen in the U.S. News ranking this year, we consider it belated recognition of the quality education that Fordham delivers every year,” said Howe.

After the university dipped in the rankings last year, Howe said that Fordham had began outlining and implementing “corrective action in the areas which most effect the learning experience, over which Fordham has the most control and which are the most heavily weighted,” including alumni participation, class size and graduation rates.

Princeton University was ranked at No. 1 for a third consecutive year, followed by Harvard, University of Chicago, Yale University, Columbia University and Stanford University, respectively.

Fordham remains lower in the rankings than ranking than some of its Catholic rivals: Notre Dame ranked No. 15, Georgetown University at No. 20 and Boston College at No. 31. Villanova University, debuting on the National Universities list this year, was ranked at No. 50.

According to U.S. News, Fordham’s tuition and fees were $47,317 for the 2015-2016 academic year with a room and board of $16,350. The university enrolled 15,286 students in Fall 2015 and had an acceptance rate of 48 percent. The report lists Fordham’s endowment as $665,532,000, compared to Villanova’s $563,865,441.

The university has sporadically climbed and fallen in the prestigious rankings in the past 15 years, jumping 31 spots from No. 84 in 2002 to No. 53 in 2011, when it was tied with Boston University. This year, Boston University has risen to No. 39.

The U.S. News & World Report’s annual “Best Colleges” list is arguably the most referenced and popular of all college rankings.

The Report categorizes regionally accredited schools their mission, “which is derived from the breakdown of types of higher education institutions,” according to the Report.

It then gives colleges a ranking based on data received on 15 indicators of academic excellence, “which are assigned a weight that reflects U.S. News’ judgment about how much that measure matters.” Colleges and universities are ranked against their peers based on their composite weighted score.

This year’s ranking methodology included two changes from the previous year

“First, U.S. News recategorized colleges based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education,” the Report’s website states. “In February 2016, Carnegie, which is the most widely accepted classification system in U.S. higher education, released official updates – called the “2015 Update” – including to the Basic Classification used in the U.S. News rankings.”

As a result, around 12 percent of ranked schools have moved into different categories of classification.

The Report also changed its methodology to create a one class size index measure (40 percent of the faculty resources score) “that takes fuller advantage of all the data schools report on class size.”