Ups And Downs

Baylor moved up six places in the 2006 edition of America's Best Colleges survey released Aug. 19 by U.S.News & World Report. The University tied for 78th place - up from 84th last year - out of 248 top national doctoral-granting universities.

The U.S. News survey also ranks Baylor's engineering program 21st in the "Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs" category, down from its 14th place position last year. Baylor's Hankamer School of Business ranked 66th in the "Best Undergraduate Business Programs" category. Hankamer placed 12th among business schools without a doctoral program and 24th among private schools. Last year, Hankamer was ranked in 77th place. Also ranked is Hankamer's entrepreneurship program, which is again rated by U.S. News as the 10th best program in the nation, the same as last year. 

Baylor's 78th place overall ranking ties the University in third place among Big 12 schools included in the survey and in fifth place among the 16 Texas universities listed. Baylor shares the 78th spot with the University of Colorado at Boulder, another Big 12 school; Clemson University; North Carolina State University-Raleigh; St. Louis University; and Virginia Tech. 

"Baylor's position in the U.S. News rankings places us among some very fine universities, and it is gratifying to be in the company of these institutions," said Baylor Interim President William D. Underwood. "While external recognition of Baylor's quality is welcome, the best measure of the true excellence of our program is the tremendous impact that Baylor graduates have had and are having in communities throughout Texas and the world." 

Baylor's graduate programs also received high marks in the 2006 Best Graduate Schools rankings released April 1 this year by U.S.News & World Report. Included in the magazine's survey were Baylor's law, nursing, education, speech-language pathology, clinical psychology, social work, biological sciences, and the two Baylor-U.S. Army programs operated at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio.

The U.S. News rankings can be found at www.usnews.com