SCU ranks second best in the West

By Michael Moeschler

For the 13th consecutive year, Santa Clara was ranked second among all 134 public and private masters universities in the West.

The rankings, published in the Sept. 13 edition of U.S. News and World Report, placed Santa Clara one place behind Trinity University of Texas. Santa Clara was also awarded several other distinguishing rankings in the publication, including the Best Value award among all Western masters universities.

To determine which schools offer the best value, US News and World Report used a formula that relates a school's academic quality to the net cost of attendance for a student who receives the average level of financial aid. The higher the quality of the program and the lower the program cost, the better the deal.

The report noted that Santa Clara was first in both graduation and retention rates. The freshmen retention rate, the number of freshmen who enroll their sophomore year, was up one percent from last year, at 93 percent. The national average for freshmen retention is about 75 percent. Santa Clara reported a graduation rate of 81 percent.

Only ten other masters universities in the West bettered Santa Clara's student-to-faculty ratio of 12 to 1.

The reports rankings were based on scores from several categories, including: academic reputation, graduation rates, class size, percent of full-time faculty, student/faculty ratios, retention of students, student test scores and grades, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving.