Albany State ranked among top HBCUs, public schools

ALBANY — Albany State University currently ranks at No. 100 among U.S. News and World Report’s annual Best Colleges among Regional Universities South.

The influential annual ranking by the publication ranks colleges and universities in several categories. ASU also ranks No. 47 among historically black colleges and universities, 49th among public schools, 319th in nursing and 29th among top performers in Social Mobility.

U.S. News & World Report said of ASU: “Albany State University is a public institution that was founded in 1903. It has a total undergraduate enrollment of 5,833, its setting is city, and the campus size is 231 acres. Its in-state tuition and fees are $6,500; out-of-state tuition and fees are $19,902.

“There are a variety of student organizations to check out, including fraternities and sororities. The ASU Golden Rams sports teams compete in the NCAA Division II Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Graduate programs at Albany State include social work, criminal justice and public affairs. Notable alumni of Albany State University include civil rights activist Shirley Sherrod and actress Jo Marie Payton, who starred in the television show “Family Matters.”

U.S. News & World Report said on its website that its editors made refinements to this year’s rankings formula by dropping five long-standing factors, modifying the weights of several other factors, and introducing a few new ones. The publication increased the emphasis on how often schools’ students from all socioeconomic backgrounds earned degrees and took advantage of information on graduate outcomes that was not available until recently.

“U.S. News evaluated nearly 1,500 U.S. four-year bachelor’s degree-granting institutions on as many as 19 measures for its 39th rankings edition,” the publication notes on its website. “These statistics pertain only to measures reflecting academic quality and graduate outcomes – factors that are universally important to prospective students. But also important are considerations that vary person-to-person, like campus culture, strength in specific majors and financial aid offered.

“To account for this, U.S. News supplements its overall rankings with specialized subject and cost-oriented rankings, customizable search tools, education journalism, and a detailed school directory with exclusive academic and nonacademic information.

To be ranked, institutions had to meet the following conditions: have regional accreditation; be included in Carnegie’s Basic classification but not designated as a “highly specialized” school; enroll at least 100 undergraduate students; have reported financial expenditures data to the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System finance survey, and have reported a six-year graduation rate of full-time, first-year bachelor’s degree-seeking students in recent years. Surveyed schools not passing all of these criteria are listed as unranked.

Special Photo: Reginald Christian/ASU