University maintains 12th-best ranking

U.S. News and World Report ranked Hopkins as the 12th best national university for the second consecutive year.

In the 2015 rankings, which were released on Tuesday, the University stood alone in the 12th spot; last year, Hopkins tied with Northwestern University, which ranked 13th this year.

“For the sake of those great teachers and learners, I am delighted that our university has been recognized again as being among the nation’s very best,” President Ronald J. Daniels said.

To compile their rankings, U.S. News and World Report factors each school’s undergraduate academic reputation, student retention and graduation rate, faculty resources and student selectivity.

Although Daniels and Provost Robert Lieberman both said they were pleased with the results of these rankings, one of the goals outlined in the University’s “Ten by 2020” plan is to “build Johns Hopkins’ undergraduate experience so it stands among the top 10 in the nation.”

“I think that the first part of that goal – enhancing the undergraduate experience – is the [more] important part,” Lieberman wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “Any sort of ranking will be just one way of measuring our success.”

Lieberman cited the University’s many projects to improve undergraduate life on the Homewood campus, including the expansion of the Film and Media Studies program in collaboration with the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the addition of pioneering Thomas Dolby as the Homewood Professor of the Arts, the opening of the Undergraduate Teaching Labs and Brody Learning Commons buildings and the progress on the Charles St. construction project.

“Across so many areas, we are working to make a Johns Hopkins education more accessible and an even more valuable experience for our students,” Lieberman wrote.

The Whiting School of Engineering ranked 15th for undergraduate engineering programs, up two spots from last year’s tie at 17th place. Hopkins also ranked first for biomedical engineering and ninth for environmental engineering.

The University placed seventh on the High School Counselor Ranking list, for which high school guidance counselors from a sampling of public high schools and from the largest private high schools were surveyed on which schools they think offer the best undergraduate education.

Additionally, Hopkins won the 19th spot on the “Best Value Schools” list, which factored schools’ scores on the overall Best Colleges list against the 2013-2014 net cost for a student receiving the average need-based financial aid package.

“The important thing for us to do is to continue to work very hard to be the best Johns Hopkins we can be, in everything we do — teaching and learning, research, patient care, service to the community,” Lieberman wrote. “Do that, and the rankings take care of themselves.”