Ithaca College has once again been recognized as among the top colleges and universities in the country by U.S. News & World Report. In its just-released “Best Colleges 2020” rankings, the publication cited IC for the quality of its teaching, for its innovation, and for being a good value.
Ithaca College was ranked as the #8 Best University in the North region among the 179 institutions of its kind. The rankings evaluate colleges and universities using statistical measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality: social mobility, first-year student retention and graduation of students, expert opinion, faculty resources, student excellence, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rate performance.
The indicators include both input measures, which reflect the quality of students, faculty and other resources used in education; and outcome measures, such as six-year graduation and first-year student retention rates and graduation rate performance, which signal how well the institution educates its student body.
Ithaca earned particularly high marks in several rankings categories:
- #5 for Best Undergraduate Teaching, a list that identifies schools “that have a strong commitment to teaching undergraduates.”
- #11 for Best Value, which takes into account a school's academic quality and the net cost of attendance, meaning the school provides a quality education at an affordable cost: The higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.
- #12 for Most Innovative Schools, signifying the institutions that are making the most innovative improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities. According to U.S. News, these are “schools that the public should be watching because of the cutting-edge changes the colleges are making on their campuses.”
“We’re proud that Ithaca College is once again recognized for our great value, for the excellence of our teaching, and for our deep commitment to continual innovation,” said Ithaca College President Shirley M. Collado. “This is a powerful introduction of IC to prospective students and their families, demonstrating some of the tremendous collaborative work that our faculty and staff do to make this institution shine among our peers.”
Ithaca College has been consistently ranked in the top 10 on the U.S. News list of regional universities, which the publication says are those that offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master’s degree programs, but few, if any, doctoral programs (Ithaca College offers one doctoral program). For this category, the rankings are divided into four regions — North, South, Midwest and West. The magazine also has separate rankings for national universities, national liberal arts colleges and regional colleges.