Brigham Young University has once again topped the “U.S. News & World Report” Best Colleges rankings along with Harvard, Yale and Princeton.
The rankings in the 2014 report include Top 10 Best Value, Top 4 Least Debt and Top 30 Undergraduate Business Program. BYU also achieved multiple specialty rankings: No. 3 for Accounting, No. 8 for International Business and No. 78 for Engineering.
Todd Hollingshead, the Information and Media Relations Manager for BYU Communications, stated that the university is pleased to see the positive ranking but realizes that this does not actually affect its quality, respect or admission.
“I think anytime BYU is ranked highly, it’s nice for us to see,” said Hollingshead. “At the same time, we understand that it’s a ranking that is coming from a third party so you kind of have to to take some things with a grain of salt. Rankings don’t really determine the quality that you know an institution to have.”
“With that being said, when you’re ranked well it’s fun to get behind it and share it with our students and our students embrace it. They love it,” Hollingshead continued.
According to Hollingshead, BYU completes a lengthy survey about all aspects of the university and submits it to the “U.S. News and World Report” every year. The rankings are partly determined by the quality of the education and the cost of attendance.
Nicole Powell, a BYU sophomore from Frederick, Md., majoring in early childhood education, said the reputation, education and tuition price were all factors in her decision to attend this university. She continued saying that the tithing-subsidized price of attending BYU allows students to get a good education at a competitively low cost.
Khoa Pham, a senior from Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam, majoring in accounting, said the high rankings make him feel proud to be in the accounting program.
“It makes me feel proud and it gives me something to brag about,” Pham said. “It makes me want to be a better student so I can keep that reputation or make it better.”
The No. 1 ranking for “national universities” was awarded to Princeton, with Harvard, Yale and Columbia trailing behind.
