Four the 10th straight year, four America East institutions rank among the top 100 national universities in the country according to U.S. News & World Report’s Best College Rankings, which were announced on Tuesday. Additionally, all eight of the conference's public institutions come in among the top 100 public universities nationally in the comprehensive rankings.
University of Vermont led the conference's top-100 schools coming in at 85th. Binghamton University and Stony Brook University were next, tying for 88th, followed by University of New Hampshire in 99th. Only the Ivy League has more top-100 schools among non-FBS conferences as America East joins the CAA with four schools recognized.
"We have always felt that collectively our member institutions comprise some of the finest universities in the country and these rankings affirm that belief," said America East Commissioner Amy Huchthausen. "As a conference, we aim to provide our schools a platform upon which their student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success and our member institutions provide their students the environment to make that mission attainable."
UMBC has been recognized as the No. 1 up-and-coming school in the country for the sixth-straight year, while also being recognized as fifth best for undergraduate teaching – ahead of Yale, Brown and Stanford. As the nation’s top up-and-coming school, UMBC leads the country in schools that are making the most promising and innovative changes in the areas of academics, faculty, and student life.
Three America East schools also ranked among the top 15 schools for veterans based on participation in federal initiatives helping veterans and active-duty service members apply for, pay for and complete their degrees. Vermont came in 14th while Binghamton and Stony Brook were tied for 15th. The Big Ten was the only other conference with at least three institutions recognized among the top 15 colleges for veterans.
In addition to the four institutions in the top 100, four other America East schools were slotted in the top 173 among national universities with University at Albany (128), UMBC (149), UMass Lowell (156) and University of Maine (173) all receiving high marks.
All eight America East members that are public institutions were listed among the country's top 100 public universities with Vermont leading the way at 34th, followed by Stony Brook and Binghamton (38), UNH (45), Albany (61), UMBC (78), UMass Lowell (84) and Maine (97). Meanwhile, University of Hartford checked in at No. 83 in the Regional Universities North rankings, up 15 spots from last year.
To rank colleges and universities, U.S. News and World Report first categorizes schools by their mission, based on the breakdown of types of higher education institutions as refined by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 2010. Those in the national universities group offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs, and emphasize faculty research.
Once schools have been divided by category, data is gathered from each college on up to 16 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects our judgment about how much a measure matters. Finally, the colleges and universities in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score.