Utah Colleges Accept Rankings Despite Uproar Over Process

None by Eric Ray

(KCPW News) U.S. News and World Report released its annual rankings of the nation's colleges and universities today despite much criticism over the ranking process. More than 60 liberal arts schools are boycotting the magazine's rankings, however Utah's colleges and universities are not part of the boycott.

Westminster College spokesperson Laura Murphy says the school is concerned over the magazine's focus of students' high school performance and how they are admitted to schools rather than their performance once they are attending college. However, Murphy says Westminster continues to participate because students and parents use rankings such as these as a guide to making school choices. Westminster ranked 15th on the magazine's list of "great schools, great prices," while it dropped from 14th to 23rd on the list of schools with master's programs in the west.

The University of Utah's College of Engineering ranks as the 17th best in the nation, however the school fell out of the magazine's rankings of best college's nationally. Brigham Young University dropped nine spots to 79th on the list of best college's nationally. BYU also ranks 26th on the list of "great schools, great prices."

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