Virginia schools make the grade in college rankings

Four Virginia universities are ranked among the top 100 institutions in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings, released Thursday.

In this year’s ranking, the University of Virginia notched No. 50; University of Richmond, No. 66; Washington and Lee University, No. 70; and William & Mary, No. 79. Last year, U.Va. was at No. 51, UR at No. 53, Washington and Lee at No. 75, and William & Mary at No. 87.

The rankings of more than 800 colleges and universities are based on 15 indicators in four areas: outcomes, resources, engagement and environment.

Outcomes account for 40% of each school’s overall score. That measure includes the salaries that graduates earn and the debt they take on to attend college.

The resources area (30% of a school’s score) examines the investment that schools make in instruction and student services.

Engagement (a 20% weighting), taken from a survey of students, looks at the quality of teaching and interactions with faculty and other students.

Environment (10% weighting) looks at the diversity of the college community.

Other Virginia schools listed among in the top 400 were:

Virginia Tech, No. 105

Virginia Military Institute, No. 176

George Mason University, No. 184

Hampden-Sydney College, No. 274

James Madison University, No. 279

Eastern Mennonite University, No. 299

Roanoke College, No. 340

Virginia Commonwealth University, No. 391

Hampton University, the University of Lynchburg, Randolph-Macon College and Shenandoah University were all included in an alphabetically listed group ranking of schools for spots 401 through 500.

The top 10 schools on the overall list are Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, California Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Brown University, Stanford University, Cornell University and Duke University.

The report also included a number of breakouts of top 10 schools in various categories.

U.Va. ranked 10th among top public universities. Also, VMI was fourth and W&L tied for eighth among the top 10 “No Regrets” schools. Those are colleges that students ranked highest for being worth the expense.