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WMU makes ninth showing on list of top universities

Aug. 21, 2007

KALAMAZOO--For the ninth consecutive year, WMU was included on U.S. News & World Report's list of the nation's top-100 public universities.

The 2008 list is part of the magazine's issue that was released online Aug. 17. The print version of the magazine and an annual "Best Colleges" guidebook with complete listing details hit newsstands Aug. 20. The magazine's annual list groups colleges and universities into categories, starting with "Best National Universities," the list on which WMU appears.

That Best National Universities category is the marquee listing in the annual U.S. News ranking. It includes 98 private institutions and 164 public institutions that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral degrees. Those 262 universities are further divided into four tiers based on their composite scores in a range of areas assessed.

WMU is one of only four public universities in the state to be included among the top three tiers in the magazine's listing of Best National Universities. The others are the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University. WMU first appeared on the overall list in 1991, and moved up to the third tier in 1999.

The U.S. News list is based on more than a dozen criteria, including academic reputation, retention and graduation rates, student/faculty ratios, class size, faculty resources and student test scores. Besides national universities, other categories in the magazine's annual rankings focus on the top liberal arts colleges in the nation as well as master's-level universities and baccalaureate colleges. The latter two categories are ranked within their regions.

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, (269) 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu

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