Five Virginia schools make U.S. News’ top national, public universities lists

Published September 9, 2014 by Veronica Garabelli

Five Virginia universities have made it on U.S. News & World Report’s list of Top National Universities and Top Public Schools.

The Virginia schools on the national list were: University of Virginia (tied at No. 23); College of William and Mary (tied at No. 33); Virginia Tech (tied at No. 71); George Mason University (tied at No. 138) and Virginia Commonwealth University (tied at No. 156). The top college on the national list was Princeton University.

On the top public schools side U. Va. tied at No. 2 with University of California—Los Angeles (University of California—Berkeley took the top spot on that list). College of William and Mary took the No. 6 spot while Virginia Tech shared the No. 27 rank with University of Iowa and University of Minnesota—Twin Cities. George Mason was No. 70 on the public schools list along with Missouri University of Science & Technology, Oregon State University and Washington State University. Virginia Commonwealth University snatched the No. 84 spot with Mississippi State University, Texas Tech University and University of Massachusetts—Lowell.

To compile the rankings, U.S. News collected data on almost 1,800 colleges. It ranked 1,365 of those based on quantitative data and the publication’s research of “what matters in education.” Rankings were only published for schools in the top 75 percent of each category.  For the full methodology, click here.

U. Va. in Charlottesville was tied at No. 23 on the national list with the University of California—Los Angeles. U.S. News noted that the school had a majority of its classes (55.4 percent) with less than 20 students and a student-faculty ratio of 16:1.

College of William and Mary in Williamsburg received a No. 33 ranking on the national list, the same score as University of Rochester in New York. Its student-faculty ratio was lower than U. Va.’s, 12:1 and 48.3 percent of its classes had 20 students or less.

Virginia Tech shared the No. 71 spot on the national ranking with a number of other schools: American University in Washington, D.C.; Baylor University in Texas; University of Iowa and University of Minnesota—Twin Cities. In its description of the school, U.S. News said Virginia Tech's male to female ratio was 58.7 percent to 41.3 percent and the majority of those students (63 percent) lived off campus.

George Mason also tied at No. 138 on the national list with other universities: Missouri University of Science & Technology; Oregon State University and Washington State University. U.S. News said that despite George Mason’s large commuter population, it offers ‘Weekends at Mason’ program and events for students who live on campus.

Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond ranked No. 156 on the national list, where U.S. News noted that cheering for “Division I sports teams, the VCU Rams, is a popular outlet for students.” VCU shared the No. 156 spotlight on that list with Maryville University of St. Louis; Mississippi State University; Texas Tech University and University of Massachusetts—Lowell.