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WMU marks 10th year on U.S. News' 'best national universities' list

Aug. 22, 2008

KALAMAZOO--For the 10th consecutive year, Western Michigan University is one of America's best national universities, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2009 ranking of more than 1,400 colleges and universities.

View college rankings online.

WMU remains among the 262 universities the magazine singles out as having national standing and being among the nation's best. Six of Michigan's 15 public universities are on that overall list, and of those six, four were named to the list's top three tiers. Only 116 of those universities in the top three tiers are public institutions. Michigan's four public universities on the list are the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University and Western Michigan University.

WMU was first named to the overall best-universities list in 1991 and moved up to the third tier in 1999. As in past years, this year's U.S. News rankings include a number of other lists ranking schools as top liberal arts schools and on a regional basis as master's-level universities and baccalaureate colleges.

"The 2009 lists speaks to Michigan's strength as a state. Our higher education system has a significant presence on the list, with many of our sister schools receiving strong recommendations in their respective categories," says WMU President John M. Dunn. "For our part, it's always nice to see WMU's standing noted. The U.S. News annual report remains among the measures that points to our standing as one of the nation's top-100 public universities."

The U.S. News list is based on more than a dozen criteria, including academic reputation, retention and graduate rates, student/faculty ratios, class size, faculty resources and student test scores.

Earlier this summer, WMU was named once again as one of the "Best Midwestern Colleges" by Princeton Review. University officials have recently been notified that WMU will be named to another high-profile list of top schools this fall.

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

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