U.S. News Ranks Penn State Among Top 20 Public Universities

U.S News & World Report released its annual ranking of universities across the nation earlier today, and while Penn State remained on the list, it fell a few spots from previous years.

Out of all American universities, Penn State came in at No. 59 on the 2019 rankings, tying three other schools: Southern Methodist University, the University of Washington, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

The national ranking marks a seven place drop from Penn State’s previous ranking at No. 52 for 2018. Penn State also fell behind seven of the 14 Big Ten schools. In the national ranking, Northwestern (10), Michigan (27), the University of Illinois (49), the University of Wisconsin (49), Rutgers (56), Purdue (56), and Ohio State (56) all ranked ahead of Penn State.

However, despite not being named among the top 50 national universities, Penn State did tie with the University of Washington for No. 20 in the Top Public Schools of 2019 rankings.

Penn State fell behind several other Big Ten schools in the public school ranking, including Michigan (4), the University of Illinois (13), the University of Wisconsin (15), Purdue University (17), Ohio State (17), and Rutgers (17).

Despite this, Penn State still beat out Pitt (26) and the University of Maryland (22) to secure its ranking in the top 20 public universities nationwide.

According to U.S News, Penn State’s overall ranking score was a 60 out of 100. The methodology is based on several different aspects such as university outcomes (retention rates, graduation rate performance, social mobility), faculty resources (class size, salary), expert opinion (peer and high school counselor assessment), and various other miscellaneous categories (alumni giving, financial resources, etc.).