TU zooms up four spots to 10th in 2018 U.S. News & World Report rankings

By Jan Lucas on September 12, 2017

In the most recent in a series of national accolades, Towson University jumped four spots to 10^th in the U.S. News & World Report 2018 America’s Best Colleges.

In its rankings released earlier today, the prestigious guide ranks TU 10th in its ‘Top Public Schools – Regional Universities (North)’ category, up from 14^th last year. There are 46 rankings in the category, including ties.

Towson University is first among six regional University of Maryland System (USM) institutions, a list that includes Bowie State University, Coppin State University, Frostburg State University, Salisbury University, and the University of Baltimore.

Additionally, TU is 23rd on the U.S. News & World Report’s ‘Best Colleges for Veterans’ rankings and 57th on its ‘Best Value Schools’ ranking.

Towson University also occupies 41st place, up 10 spots from last year, among 137 rankings in the magazine’s 2018 ranking of private and public regional institutions in the North. There are 137 rankings in that category, including ties, for a total of 196 schools.

“In my fall address last week,” noted TU President Kim Schatzel, “I stated that we as a university are at an inflection point—a decisive moment in our proud history that marks we are on the cusp of an era of very significant and very positive change.

“One sign of TU’s inflection point is the repeated national recognition and accolades the university is receiving for its outstanding academic quality and commitment to academic excellence,” Schatzel added, “including today’s impressive recognition from U.S. News & World Report.”

Today’s U.S. News & World Report announcement is the latest in a series of positive national rankings for Towson University. So far this year, TU has been recognized by the following prestigious publications:

• Money magazine: ranked Towson University among the nation’s Best Colleges, joining Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland, College Park, as the highest-ranked institutions in Maryland;
• Forbes: once again named Towson University in its 2017 Best Colleges rankings;
• Diverse Issues in Higher Education: TU holds the No. 43 position in the magazine’s annual Top 100 list of U.S. colleges and universities that have conferred the most bachelor’s degrees on African-Americans. The ranking includes bachelor’s degrees across all disciplines.
• Washington Monthly: ranked Towson University 64th — up 20 spots from 84th one year ago — among the 632 colleges and universities surveyed for its National Universities-Master’s category. Towson University was the highest ranked public university in Maryland. TU also ranked 56th out of 363 U.S. public and private universities on the magazine’s 2017 ‘Best Bang for the Buck –Northeast’ list.

“Colleges that enroll lower and middle income students, and successfully graduate them, do very well in this ranking,” Schatzel said of Washington Monthly. “So do universities producing the next generation of scientists and those that build an ethos of public obligation by sending their graduates into public and community service.”

U.S. News evaluates schools on up to 15 measures of academic quality to produce rankings that can help prospective students and their parents compare nearly 1,400 U.S.-based colleges.

Rankings are published only for the top 75 percent of schools in their region. RNP (ranking not published) appears for the other institutions.

For the complete list of Regional Universities (North) or to learn more about rankings methodology, visit the U.S. News & World Report website.

This story is one of several related to President Kim Schatzel's priorities for Towson University: TU Matters to Maryland and Strategic Plan Alignment.