The University of Denver has been ranked 97 out of nearly 400 as one of the nation’s top colleges to attend by the US News & World Report this month. The ranking from US News & World Report looks at six main factors: outcomes, faculty resources, expert opinion, financial resources, student inputs and alumni giving. Outcomes is the biggest category and looks at among other things; graduation and retention during a six-year period. The expert opinion score comes from a survey that is completed by top administrators at other schools that share the classification as a national university, while the president, provost and admissions director each complete a separate survey. The financial resources score comes from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
The 2020 rankings look at data from 2018. DU is classified as a national university by Carnegie Classification of Higher Education Institutions, that means DU is in the same class as the nation’s most prestigious schools like Harvard and Yale. The scores in each of the six sections are added together to get an overall score. DUs overall score rose from 51 to 52, and ranked higher in every category this year except for faculty resources.
Linda Kosten, the Vice Provost for University Budget, Planning and Administration, said this is because Denver has become a more expensive city to live in. In contrast, the biggest area of growth was in the graduation and retention category. With a student to faculty ratio of 11-to-1 and a graduation rate of 77 percent, DU is able to remain toward the top of the student outcomes metric. To improve on scores from last year, Corinne Lengsfeld, the Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, said that DU prioritizes certain factors, from class size reduction to alumni giving and graduation rates, to continue to make room for improvement.
“We go through and find categories we can move on and then move them up,” said Provost Lengsfeld. She continued“We looked at the cohort of students that started in fall 2013 and found people that were close to graduating but still had a few things left to do. We had academic advising call each of them to work toward graduating.” Provost Lengsfeld wants to see DU at the top of every chart, and continues to work on how to achieve this goal.
“This year we are setting aspirational goals,” she said. “We are thinking about all the things that are important to us and then we are going out and working to improve those things.”
This year’s priorities include the expert survey, where the administrators at other schools give DU a ranking. However, this can be one area where DU struggles.
“Denver is a hidden gem, but we want the rest of the country to know about us so our degrees have more prestige,”said Vice Provost Kosten. Priorities also include improving alumni giving and raising the graduation rate.
The road to graduation does come with some challenges. These come in many forms, be that a change of interest, change of priorities or financial challenges.
“There are lots of reasons why people who start here don’t graduate from here. That said our graduation rate is in line with schools of the same size and stature” Provost Lengsfeld said. “Hands down financial reasons are why students don’t persist and finish their degree.”
Provost Langsfeld further stated that factors such as financial aid can be a roadblock, and DU administration continually looks for a way to overcome these factors.
In a written statement Chancellor Jeremy Haefner said, “There is nothing more vital than helping our students succeed — both while they are in the classroom and also after they graduate.” Provost Lansfeld said “We are not chasing rankings. We want to be the best and our students deserve the best.”
