U.S. News ranks Rowan #79 among public universities

U.S. News & World Report, in its “Best Colleges 2020” special edition, ranked Rowan University #79 among public universities and #166 among all National Universities, five places higher than for 2019.

It also ranked Rowan #21 for Undergraduate Engineering (two places higher than last year), #120 for Best Value, #260 for Undergraduate Business and #121 for Best Colleges for Veterans, the last three of which it did not rank Rowan for last year.

This is the third year that U.S. News has ranked Rowan in the National category, which it began doing after the University secured Carnegie classification as a public doctoral level research institution. Under U.S. News guidelines, schools considered National universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master's and doctoral programs, and emphasize faculty research or award professional practice doctorates.

Rowan President Ali A. Houshmand said the U.S. News findings, released Sept. 9, reflect an institution that, in fewer than a dozen years, has doubled enrollment, added two medical schools and attained research university status.

“We have made incredible gains in a very short period of time,” Houshmand said. “As is often the case with external rankings, we do not judge ourselves by them, but it’s nice to be recognized.”

Rowan for 2019-20 has roughly 19,600 students, its largest enrollment ever, and its freshman class, at roughly 2,800 students, tied last year’s record for a first-year cohort.

U.S. News uses a multi-point assessment in evaluating schools for its annual tally including a peer assessment, retention and graduation rates, SAT/ACT scores, and a "social mobility" rank.

Wall Street Journal and others

Separately, the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College 2020 rankings on Sept. 4 placed Rowan 311 out of 801 institutions studied nationally. That ranking, which considered four categories – resources, engagement, outcomes and environment – also ranked Rowan #118 out of 258 colleges and universities in the Northeast region.

Other organizations that have ranked Rowan favorably recently include the Chronicle of Higher Education, which named Rowan the fourth fastest-growing college or university in America among public doctoral institutions, a two-place gain over 2018-19.