NRC ranks UI in top 20

The UI has been making a lot of people's lists lately.

The National Research Council, an independent organization chartered by
Congress, listed the UI among the top 20 schools with the highest-quality
doctoral programs. Results of the council's four-year study were released
Sept. 13.

In the NRC report, 10 programs were ranked in the top 10: materials
science, civil engineering, electrical engineering, chemical engineering,
mechanical engineering, chemistry, computer science, physics, psychology
and anthropology.

Just this week, in its "best values" rankings, U.S. News & World Report
magazine rated the UI No. 1 on its list of national universities considered
to be the most "efficient." The magazine's best-value rankings measure
schools using two yardsticks: quality and cost. The "efficiency" rating
applies to "institutions that rank highest in academic quality in relation
to what they spend per student on educational programs."

Only those schools that finished in the top half of the magazine's quality
rankings of national universities and liberal arts colleges - published in
the earlier Sept. 18 issue - are considered for the best-value rankings.

A number of UI undergraduate programs were judged among the nation's best
in the previous week's rankings. The College of Engineering was rated third
best, with individual departments within the college receiving high marks
as well. The departments of civil engineering and environmental engineering
were ranked No. 1, while computer engineering, electrical engineering,
mechanical engineering, and materials science all ranked in the top five.

The UI College of Commerce and Business Administration was ranked seventh
in U.S. News & World Report's survey of undergraduate business schools.
Within that college, the department of accountancy was ranked first, and
the department of finance, fifth.

The latest round of rankings comes on the heels of Money magazine's
inclusion of the UI among the nation's top 10 schools with the best
"higher-education value." The UI was rated No. 9 in that ranking, published
Sept. 5 in the magazine's special edition, "Money Guide: Your Best College
Buys Now."