Xavier Named to U.S. News and World Report's 'Best National Universities' List for First Time

U.S. News and World Report just released its annual ranking of the country's top colleges. And for the first time ever, Xavier University made the cut for the Best National Universities list.

According to Xavier, U.S. News and World Report began releasing its comprehensive Best Colleges compilation 38 years ago and this year marks the school's debut on the national rankings. Its spot? No. 166.

Previously, Xavier had been named a top 10 Midwest Regional College for 27 years in a row.

U.S. News and World Report's Best Colleges list includes categories devoted not only to national universities, but also liberal arts colleges, historically Black colleges and universities, regional colleges and more. According to the website, the publication reviewed more than 1,500 "U.S. bachelor's degree-granting institutions" this year.

Xavier says this new recognition is in part because of the "number of terminal degrees" the school offers.

“It is due to the dedication and hard work of our faculty and staff with our students that we have earned this reputation among our peers," said Rachel Chrastil,  Xavier provost and chief academic officer, in a release. "This all maps back to the work done each day in the classroom, in our guidance to students as they learn to be deeper thinkers and more skilled practitioners, in supporting students in undergraduate research, in rethinking our curriculum, in the many hours of pedagogical development at the Center for Teaching Excellence."

Xavier also placed:

• No. 54 for Best Undergraduate Teaching
  
• No. 111 for Best Colleges for Veterans
• No. 174 for Best Value School

Xavier wasn't the only local college to make the cut. The University of Cincinnati ranked at No. 151 on the National Universities list.

UC also placed:

• No. 68 for Most Innovative School
• No. 72 for Top Public School
• No. 75 for Best Undergraduate Engineering Program
• No. 11 for Best College for Veterans

Princeton was ranked the No. 1 Best National University, followed by MIT at No. 2 and Stanford, Yale and Harvard tied for No. 3.

U.S. News and World Report says the Best Colleges rankings take 17 "measures of academic quality" into consideration, including graduation and retention rates, class size, social mobility and faculty resources.  See the full methodology.

Read Xavier University's full ranking report at usnews.com and the University of Cincinnati's at usnews.com.

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