US News ranks Brandeis as a top national university

On the Best National Liberal Arts College list, Hillsdale College ranked 83 this year, down from its 67 place a year ago.

School profiles include specifics on academic life, financial aid, student body makeup and more.

UM-Dearborn was rated among the best regional universities in the Midwest.

The University of Kentucky dropped in the rankings from No. 129 last year to No. 133 this year but received a higher score (41) than last year (36).

Overall, the military college was named the 3rd best regional university in the South, behind No. 1 Elon University in North Carolina and No. 2 Rollins College in Florida.

But the magazine gave credit to MSU for being a great school for veterans and for its undergraduate engineering programs (both #50) and having a top business program (#23). Since 2008, SMU’s 11-point increase is one of the four largest among schools in the top 60.

Other Duke programs receiving special mention included the university’s service learning, study overseas, undergraduate research, senior capstone and “writing in the disciplines” programs, all of which were listed as “programs to look for”.

“In recent years, Providence College consistently has been ranked within the top five institutions in our category”, said PC President Rev. Brian J. Shanley, O.P.

The rankings allow students to compare the academic quality of nearly 1,800 US schools.

Overall, Princeton was ranked first by U.S. News among national universities, followed by Harvard, University of Chicago and Yale, Columbia, and Stanford. In the 2010 edition, which was published roughly one year after Ribeau took office, Howard ranked 96th in the national category.

Earlier this year, U.S. News released its graduate rankings.

The University of OR stayed put at No. 103 in the U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings, which were published Tuesday.