For the fourth consecutive year, Saint Louis University has been ranked in the top 50 national, doctoral universities “Great Schools at Great Prices” list.
However, after climbing for three years in this ranking from 49th to 30th and then 24th last year, the University dropped this year to 42nd.
“I really don’t know what caused the change,” said Scott Belobrajdic, director of Undergraduate Admissions. “Our tuition increases have been similar for the last four years as has been our commitment to financial aid, and our academic reputation has remained the same.”
While SLU dropped in rankings, the University still ranks as the second-highest Catholic university, behind the University of Notre Dame, which ranked 21st. Loyola University Chicago and Marquette University ranked 46th and 50th respectively.
“I wouldn’t call [the rankings] arbitrary, but I wouldn’t call them conclusively scientific,” said Belobrajdic.
He explained that many in his field often approach such rankings with cynicism.
“All schools play the rankings down unless they’re good,” he added.
Belobrajdic explained that whether a school is a good value depends on the individual student and his/her family. Also, most students will not make that determination until they receive their aid package in March.
“No one’s going to pick SLU based solely on a ranking in U.S. News and World Report,” Belobrajdic said.
He said that the rankings are based upon a formula comparing the billed tuition and room and board of a university with the financial aid provided to those students demonstrating need.
In addition to those factors, the academic reputation of an institution is also calculated into the formula.
In addition to the Best Buy ranking, SLU Parks College of Engineering and Aviation ranked among the top 26 undergraduate engineering programs, and the Aerospace Engineering department ranked in the top three nationally. Both of these are improvements over last year’s rankings.
“This year’s improvement is consistent with our efforts to recruit excellent faculty and the increasing quality of our graduating classes,” stated Charles Kirkpatrick, dean of Parks.
Belobrajdic said that while this current ranking will likely have little effect upon incoming students, the Admissions department is noticing increased publicity from the March 30 issue of the Wall Street Journal, citing SLU as a Back-up school to the Ivy League Schools.
SLU sent copies of the article to more than 750 high schools across the country.
“With so few Midwestern schools on the list, high school counselors are wanting to know more about us since we’re on this list,” said Belobrajdic.
