Local colleges receive high marks
Four area colleges — including three in Riverside — received high marks in the latest college rankings from U.S. News & World Report.
UC Riverside, California Baptist University, La Sierra University, all located in Riverside, and the University of Redlands, were each ranked within their respective categories, including:
- UC Riverside — 86th in “Best National Universities” and 9th in “Up-and-Coming Schools”
- Univ. of Redlands — 8th “Best Universities — Master’s (West)” and 2nd “Great Schools, Great Prices, Universities — Master’s”
- California Baptist Univ. — 41st in “Best Universities — Master’s (West)”
- La Sierra Univ. — 1st in “Racial Diversity, Universities — Master’s (West)”
For UCR, the “Up-and-Coming” ranking validates what many on campus already know, but yet hasn’t quite translated into off-campus circles. For example, the newly-appointed dean of UCR’s College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Thomas Baldwin, told the following to The Press-Enterprise:
“I came and took a look and I met the faculty and I said, ‘Holy camoly!’ Man! This place is much, much stronger than it is perceived outside,” he said. “Perceptions trail reality by at least 10 years and I think this university is just about to burst onto the national radar screen as being a very, very good place to go to school. I think you’re going to see a lot happen over the next five years.”
Riverside Press-Enterprise – August 22, 2008
Indeed, the ranking should come as no real surprise to those close to UCR, as the campus has consistently ranked among the top universities nationwide over the past decade in receiving Fellows from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), one of the most distinguished honors in the scientific community. In several recent years, UCR has received the most appointments, beating out such stalwarts as MIT, Princeton, Yale, Harvard and UC Berkeley.
“This is a welcome confirmation of what faculty, students, staff and alumni know about the University of California, Riverside,” said UCR’s new chancellor, Timothy P. White. “It speaks to the quality of the people that we have and the programs that are established and being established. This is not a surprise. It’s long overdue. The credit goes to those who worked hard in the past to get the university to where it is today.”
UCR Newsroom – August 22, 2008
Related
Previous
- RaincrossSquare.com – UCR moves up in rankings (Oct. 2007)
- RaincrossSquare.com – UC Riverside given high marks (Aug. 2006)