THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 17, 1994 TAG: 9409170288
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines
The University of Virginia is the 17th best university - and the top public university - in the nation in the new college rankings released by U.S. News & World Report magazine.
U.Va. moved up four notches from last year's ratings. Senior John Wagner said the university should be doing even better in the standings: ``It probably doesn't adequately reflect the quality of academics here. We should probably be higher.''
U.Va. President John T. Casteen III said the school benefited from the magazine's increased emphasis on graduation rates: U.Va. graduates 89 percent of its freshmen within seven years, state figures show - the highest rate in Virginia.
U.S. News rated Harvard the best university in the nation.
The magazine also rated the University of Richmond the best ``regional university'' in the South, and Roanoke College was tied with Lyon College, in Arkansas, as the best ``regional liberal arts college'' in the South.
``Quite frankly, my reaction is: They've finally got it right,'' said Richmond's president, Richard L. Morrill. ``We've been No. 2 the past four years.''
Wake Forest University, which had been ranked tops in that category, was moved to the higher level of ``national university.''
Colleges have a love-hate relationship with the popular magazine rankings. A jump in the listings could bring a flood of applications from better-qualified applicants. But administrators grumble that the listings remain arbitrary and sometimes unfair.
Morrill, for instance, questioned why Richmond was not considered a national university. The school, he said, offers eight master's degrees and a law degree. More than 80 percent of its students, he said, are from outside Virginia.
``It's sort of an irony to see the term `regional' applied to the University of Richmond,'' he said. ``It's not a particularly good choice of word to describe the institution.''
But Robert Morse, the research director for the magazine's ``America's Best Colleges'' issue, said U.S. News breaks down categories based on classifications of universities made by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. ``Student body has nothing to do with it,'' he said.
National universities, such as U.Va., must offer doctorates, Morse said. Richmond does not. National liberal-arts colleges, such as Amherst, are more selective than regional liberal-arts colleges.
The difference between liberal-arts colleges and universities in the magazine ratings is that liberal-arts schools generally don't offer degrees higher than bachelor's.
In other rankings, U.S. News said:
Washington and Lee University was the 15th best national liberal arts college in the country.
James Madison University was rated eighth and Mary Washington College 12th among regional universities in the South.
Emory & Henry College ranked third and Mary Baldwin College fifth among regional liberal-arts colleges in the South.
Gordon K. Davies, director of the State Council of Higher Education, described the rankings as ``highly idiosyncratic lists that probably don't reflect the quality of institutions.''
Davies said accrediting agencies should better evaluate the quality of colleges. ``What we have'' instead, with the magazine ratings, he said, ``is a very unscientific way of doing this sort of job.'' MEMO: Campus correspondent Kirsten Williams contributed to this story.
KEYWORDS: COLLEGES U.S. UNIVERSITY RANK by CNB