Is SDSU going up in the ranking this year?

kluge
Tue, 02 Aug 2005 19:07:27 +0000

Probably not. SDSU is a square peg which doesn’t fit into USNews’ round holes. It’s classified as a National Research University because of its size and the amount of research and number of graduate programs it offers - but by law it technically can’t grant doctoral degrees. (It does so by partnering with a variety of other Universities which are not hindered by that law.) So under the USNews’ standards it will always be ranked lower than it would if it were, say, classified as a Master’s-oriented school like the rest of the CSUs such as Cal Poly, CSU Chico, etc. So while SDSU attracts a student body which is more academically talented than many schools in the top 100 of the USNews rankings of schools in its class, I suspect it will be destined to remain stranded in the fourth tier for the forseeable future.