MIZZOU NEWS

U.S. News Rankings

By Laura Roloff

In the 2004 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” guide, the University of Missouri-Columbia was included in the list of colleges and universities with outstanding examples of academic programs that lead to student success. MU was recognized for its Freshman Interest Groups (FIGs) and learning communities, where students with shared academic interests live in the same residence hall and often attend classes together.

“Mizzou’s learning communities are nationally recognized and widely replicated,” says Ann Korschgen, vice provost of enrollment management. “They are among the best in the country due to the high level of faculty involvement, the excellent array of learning experiences available for students, the support and commitment of the Residential Life staff, and the positive impact they have upon student retention.”

This year MU has 84 FIGs and 24 learning communities. About 1,200 students participate in FIGs, which are designed for first-time college students. Fifteen to 20 first-year students are assigned to the same residence hall community and co-enrolled in three core courses focused on a specific major, career or theme. MU’s learning communities focus on a specific academic major, interest area or other common interest. They are open to first-year and returning students and offer study groups, computer labs and other special features. Examples include Men of Engineering, Agriculture and the World of Business and the Honors Residence.

“By linking housing and curricular experiences, students can easily meet other students with common interests; they have a built-in support group,” says FIGs Coordinator Andrew Beckett. “FIGs and learning communities make MU feel psychologically smaller. We’ve had tremendous support from every academic division on campus, which has allowed us to create these experiences for students.”

U.S. News also lists MU among the top 75 national universities in the “National Universities-Doctoral” category of the guide. Two hundred forty-eight U.S. universities are included in this category — 162 are public institutions and 86 are private. U.S. News ranks more than 1,400 institutions, grouping them with peers based on the categories developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

MU is ranked at No. 32 with Michigan State University and Virginia Tech in the top 50 public national universities-doctoral list and is ranked 73rd on the list of both public and private national universities-doctoral.

Each year, U.S. News also ranks graduate programs in the areas of business, education, engineering, law and medicine. The rankings are based on expert opinion about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students. Data come from surveys of more than 1,000 programs and nearly 7,000 academics and other professionals that were conducted in fall 2002.

The following Mizzou programs were included in the 2004 edition of “America’s Best Graduate Schools.”

• The School of Law’s Dispute Resolution Program tied with Pepperdine University, Calif., as the No. 1 program in the nation. The School of Law itself was ranked 59th in the list of top 100 law schools.

• MU’s Department of Family and Community Medicine was ranked No. 2 in the nation. For the past 10 years, MU has ranked in the top three in this category, nine years as No. 2.

• MU’s School of Medicine ranked12th among schools emphasizing primary care. Administrators credit MU’s innovative problem-based curriculum, which prepares students with real-world training, as one of the key factors in its consistent top 20 ranking in this field.

• MU’s Health Services Administration master’s degree program was ranked No. 15. For more than a decade, the program has been ranked in the top 20.

• The Clinical Psychology doctoral program was ranked No. 25.

• The College of Education was ranked No. 32 overall, while its Career and Technical Education program ranked 7th and its Counseling Psychology Program ranked 9th.

• The master’s degree program at the Sinclair School of Nursing was ranked 53rd out of 278 schools across the nation.

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Last Update: November 15, 2007