U.S. News and World Report ranked Cal State Long Beach fourth best public regional university in the western United States for the fourth consecutive year, earning a distinction President F. King Alexander said should be the “most valued part of the [college] ranking system” for students.
CSULB also ranked 26th place in the Regional University Western Rankings, which included public and private institutions.
Rankings of colleges nationwide have been published in the 2012 edition of “America’s Best Colleges Guide,” an annual report and tool for incoming students searching for the right institution.
But, according to Alexander, the guide does not always fairly represent public universities.
The CSULB president said that a more accurate list of rankings would always separate the public and private institutions, so that the list may be “more apples-to-apples than apples-to-oranges.”
Public universities, such as CSULB, face severe budget restrictions, unlike private institutions, and Alexander said that made it more difficult for students to graduate.
“There are less resources and classes are larger,” he explained.
However, the report credited CSULB with having the fifth lowest debt among regional universities in the west. About 38 percent of graduating students leave with an average debt of $10,787.
Among all universities nationally, the campus’ average debt ranked 11th lowest and its percentage of graduates with debt (38 percent) was fourth lowest.
According to the list of U.S. News Best Grad School Rankings, CSULB has also ranked well in a variety of individual programs. The university’s highest rankings were in Best Healthcare Management Program (57th place), Best Fine Arts Program (58th place) and Best Social Work Program (60th place).
The 2012 edition of the “America’s Best Colleges Guide,” which includes 1,400 four-year colleges, was assembled by measuring and comparing 16 mediators of excellence.
According to U.S. News and World Report writers Robert Morse and Sam Flanigan, indicators used to measure academic quality are organized into such categories as, “assessment by administrators at peer institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, [and] alumni giving.”
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