Visitors & Friends > News > Releases > General > Article

News Releases

September 13, 2002

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, 858 534-7404

UCSD RANKED SEVENTH NATIONALLY IN U.S.NEWS 2003 SURVEY

The University of California, San Diego ranked as the seventh best public university in the nation in the annual America's Best Colleges survey for 2003 issued today by U.S. News and World Report.

The guide rated 1,400 four-year schools, designating the nation's top 50 national universities and the 50 best public national universities.

Of the top 50 public universities, at seventh place UCSD outranked much older institutions such as the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Washington, the University of Texas-Austin and Penn State University. UC-Berkeley was ranked first of the top 50 public national universities.

Among the nation's top national universities, both public and private, UCSD ranked 31st of the total 249 rated. As described by U.S. News, "these National Universities-Doctoral offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and Ph.D. degrees, and emphasize faculty research." In this category the three top universities were Princeton, Harvard and Yale, respectively.

UCSD also was listed among schools whose doctoral students accumulate the least amount of debt in loans.

U.S. News bases its national rankings on peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.

The 2003 rankings are available in the Sept. 23 issue of the U.S. News and World Report magazine. The U.S. News book, America's Best College, will go on sale Sept. 16