WPI ranks among top in nation
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by Jessica Morgan
Associate Editor |
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WPI was ranked 31st in the "Great Schools at Great Prices" article from the September 18, 2000 issue of U.S. News and World Report. WPI tied with Brown University, Lehigh University, and the University of Southern California (USC) for 31st, and came in ahead of Clarkson University, Tufts University, and Brandeis University. This ranking was based on the overall score in the America's Best Colleges Survey (in which WPI ranked in the second tier), the total cost, the amount of students receiving financial aid, and the average discount from the total cost.
When asked for his thoughts on WPI's success, President Parrish commented, "I think our [position] is even higher than this ranking suggests because of the nature of our academic programs. For example, in another ranking by US News dealing with class size, WPI came out in the 13th position, ahead of MIT, Stanford, Tufts, and Northwestern. Our faculty's interactions with students outside the classroom as projects are undertaken are extremely important to the quality of the educational experiences provided. This quality also shows up in the rankings of undergraduate engineering programs with PhD programs. In this case, WPI is tied at the 50th position with several institutions, but ahead of Drexel, Illinois Institute of Technology, Northeastern, Tufts, BU, and several other well-known institutions."
Rankings such as the annual U.S. News and World Report have become very important to not only incoming students, but also businesses hiring WPI students. John Heyl, VP for University Relations, observed, "While institutionally we recognize that such rankings are somewhat arbitrary, being based on people's sense of "value" in addition to factual information such as tuition, it is still nice to be included. It is also good to know that ranking services such as US News are recognizing what we hear from the numerous corporations who want our graduates and from our alumni, namely that WPI has one of the very best technology education programs in the nation."
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