Which underrated colleges are on the way up?

Parents Forum
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SCU is handicapped in terms of national recognition because – they don’t grant enough PhDs (less than 20). But they are expanding their doctoral programs, and if they can hit that threshold, they’ll be set. Here’s the logic:

  1. The USN&WR rankings group schools by their Carnegie Classification (CC). The USN&WR "National Universities" category represents schools that are classified as "Doctoral Universities" in the CC.
  2. But SCU isn't regarded as a "Doctoral University" in the CC. Therefore USN&WR puts SCU in the "Regional Universities West" category with CSUs like Cal Poly SLO -- and *not* in the "National Universities" category with the UCs. Note that SCU is close to the top of the "Regional Universities West" ranking, ahead of Cal Poly.
  3. Out-of-staters who are looking for a school in California are much more likely to review the "National Universities" ranking than the "Regional Universities West" ranking. So they tend to overlook SCU. In the same way, Cal Poly gets much less national recognition than UCs, even though Californians know that CP is a worthy UC alternative.
  4. The CC, which is updated every 5 years, classifies schools as "Doctoral Universities" if they grant at least 20 research doctorates annually. If SCU hits this threshold, they will be reclassified as a "Doctoral University" by CC, and therefore as a "National University" by USN&WR.
  5. If SCU is reclassified as a "National University" in the USN&WR rankings, its national visibility will greatly increase.

We can only speculate about SCU’s potential place in the “National University” rankings. My guess is that they could make the Top 50, comparable to mid-tier UCs.

iIf this sounds implausible, consider that another Catholic school, Villanova University, was recently reclassified by USN&WR in exactly this way, from the top of the “Regional Universities East” ranking to the “National University” ranking. Villanova now sits at #46 in the “National Universities” ranking, tied with UC Davis. Villanova and SCU are considered peers in the Catholic school community.