Detroit Mercy now a “National University” in US News ranking

[Rogobob77]

The US News & World Report college rankings for 2020 were released today. The classification criteria has changed and the University of Detroit Mercy is no longer considered a “Regional University” but rather lumped in with the Harvards and Michigans of the collegiate world as a “National University.”

Detroit Mercy was ranked #179, tied with St. John’s, Idaho and U-Mass Lowell. Was surprised that we fared better than big state schools like #185 Houston, #192 Louisville, #218 Texas Tech, #228 West Virginia, and #272 Memphis. Where some Michigan schools fell: Michigan is #25, MSU #84, Michigan Tech #147, GVSU #228, CMU #240, Wayne St. is #246.

Some info on Horizon schools: Among National Universities, UIC is at #132, Detroit Mercy #179, IUPUI #228. CSU, NKU, Oakland, Milwaukee and Wright St. were lumped together in a tier numerically defined as #293-381. Green Bay is considered a Regional University and is #95 in the Midwest, Youngstown St. (and incoming Purdue Fort Wayne) are in the same classification category and both are ranked in a tier numbered #117-153. (Last year, Detroit Mercy was ranked #25 amongst Midwest Regional Universities.)

The following is cut and pasted from US News regarding the classification of schools:

National Universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and doctoral programs, and emphasize faculty research or award professional practice doctorates.

Regional Universities offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. We ranked them in four geographical groups: North, South, Midwest and West.

To place each school in its ranking, U.S. News strictly maps its categories to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education's Basic Classification system. The U.S. Department of Education and many higher education associations use the Carnegie system to organize or label their data, among other uses. In short, the Carnegie categories are the accepted standard in U.S. higher education.

In February 2019, Carnegie released official updates – called the "2018 Update" – including the Basic system. U.S. News first used this 2018 Update in the 2020 Best Colleges rankings.

Carnegie's 2018 Update reclassified many institutions. Most significantly, it added a professional practice doctoral category into its universe of doctoral universities. Consequently, even though U.S. News' mapping between its ranking categories and Carnegie Classifications was unchanged, many schools are categorized in different U.S. News rankings for the 2020 edition compared with the previous edition. This underscores that the total number of schools ranked in our National Universities ranking increased by more than 25% year-to-year while total ranked Regional Universities decreased by approximately 10% year-to-year.

[Rogobob77]

Press release from the University:

September 09, 2019

For 18 consecutive years, Detroit Mercy has achieved top tier rankings for Midwest Best Regional Universities in the U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” edition. This year, based on changes instituted by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Detroit Mercy is now ranked with the top national universities.

Detroit Mercy is ranked No. 179 for 2020 in the Best National Universities category and is one of four universities in Michigan ranked among the top 200 in the nation.

In addition to this new national ranking, Detroit Mercy also earned the following ranks in the National Universities category:

Best Value Schools, National Universities - #45.
Best School for Veterans, National Universities - #133.
Best Overall Undergraduate Business Programs - #292.
A+ Schools for B Students (these are not ranked).

“Detroit Mercy’s placement in this new category reaffirms our 142-year-old Jesuit and Mercy history of academic quality and excellence,” Detroit Mercy President Antoine M. Garibaldi said.

“This ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s ‘Best Colleges’ edition, with many more of the nation’s well-known universities, is timely as Detroit Mercy implements numerous academic- and student-focused initiatives in its Strategic Plan 2019-2024: Boundlessly Forward to assure that our graduates will continue to attain both career and personal success,” he added.

This news follows the Wall Street Journal/The Times Higher Education 2020 rankings that appeared Sept. 4, in which Detroit Mercy is ranked among the top 20% of universities in the country (No. 172). Detroit Mercy is also the highest ranking private university in Michigan according to the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education 2020 report and has climbed almost 100 spots since the first report in 2017.

In 2019, U.S News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” edition ranked Detroit Mercy No. 25 for Midwest Best Regional Universities. The University was also one of only two universities in Michigan to be listed in the top 25.

Background on U.S. News & World Report Rank Carnegie Classification Change

The U.S. News collects data on more than 1,800 independent regionally accredited institutions. Before calculating the rankings, U.S. News groups colleges into categories based on the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the most widely accepted classification system in U.S. higher education. Carnegie makes updates every few years and U.S. News follows these updates accordingly. As a result of the Carnegie 2018 update used in the upcoming 2020 U.S. News Best Colleges, the new classification change also includes professional practice doctoral degrees in such disciplines as law and dentistry. Since Detroit Mercy has both a School of Law and School of Dentistry, the University is now ranked among national institutions.

U.S. News & World Report released the rankings Sept. 9. For more, visit https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges. For more on University of Detroit Mercy, please visit http://www.udmercy.edu.

[Tacitus651]

I didn’t realize the new categorization would shift us into the national rankings. Had you told me so, I wouldn’t have predicted we’d be as high as 179. I think overall this is good news for us. I’d rather be a top 200 in the national rankings than lost in the regional rankings which a lot of people don’t even bother looking at.

I’m surprised the undergrad B-school rank is so low.

The high value ranking is probably largely thanks to the tuition reset and number of students employed post graduation. I hope this leads to an increase in the applicant pool.