DU dropped 29 spots to place No. 207 out of 610 ranked institutions in the recent release of the 2010 Forbes list of the best colleges in the United States. Last year, DU was ranked No. 178.
Interim Vice Chancellor Jim Berscheidt is not concerned about the fallback of this decreased rank, however.
“There are many organizations conducting research and issuing rankings, and their methodology often changes from year to year,” Berscheidt said. “DU officials do not follow each one closely since we do not believe it greatly influences decisions being made by prospective students.”
Forbes.com is generally considered a valuable source of comparative information for a variety of subjects, including the famous Forbes 2000, which lists the world’s 2,000 leading businesses.
Starting in 2008, Forbes partnered with the Center for College Affordability and Productivity (CCAP) to compile a list of the best colleges in America.
According to the Forbes.com website, “A good college is one that meets student needs. While some college rankings are based partly on school reputation as evaluated by college administrators and on the amount of money spent, we focus on things which directly concern incoming students.”
Forbes and the CCAP tried to reflect such a mindset in focusing on five areas of rating in their 2010 evaluation: Student satisfaction, 27.5 percent; postgraduate success, 30 percent; student debt, 17.5 percent; four-year graduation rate, 17.5 percent; and competitive awards, 7.5 percent.
This distribution of weighting represents a different methodology than the one used in 2009.
In 2009, salaries of alumni according to PayScale.com and the four-year graduation rates held less emphasis, whereas in 2010, their roles became more significant.
Many criteria lost significance in the overall count, including criteria like the number of listings of alumni from Who’s Who in America, ratings from RateMyProfessors.com, the number of students receiving nationally competitive awards, the number of faculty awards and the average four-year debt load for typical student borrowers.
Prospective student Gage Crispe believes that the changed rank will not affect DU’s enrollment in the future.
“The drop in ranking does not affect my decision to come to DU,” Crispe said. “I know that DU is a prestigious university and that I will still get an above average education there.”
DU also fell in rank compared to other Colorado colleges and universities, from third-best to fifth-best.
