For the second consecutive year, “U.S. News and World Report: America’s Best Colleges” ranked SMU No. 71 in their 2006 edition, which was released earlier this month.
The university ranked above Baylor (78) and below Texas A&M (52).
Harvard once again topped the list of 120 rankings of national universities.
SMU’s Dedman Law School fell from a ranking of 47 in last year’s publication to 52 this year.
Tied with Dedman was Baylor’s law school.
In other rankings, “Forbes” magazine named the Cox Business School No. 31 out of 60 national business graduate schools.
Cox ranked above Rice’s Jones Business School, 41, and below the Texas A&M Mays Business School, 24.
On the “Forbes” list, The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College took the No. 1 spot while Harvard’s business school slipped from its traditional rating of 1st place to 7th.
SMU also showed up in six categories in the Princeton Review 2006 edition, which was released earlier this week.
The University ranked No. 4 in both Great College Towns and Happiest Students.
“I think everyone on campus and in Dallas is really friendly. They make new students fee really comfortable,” underclassman Natalie Shaw said.
On a less positive note, the school ranked No. 9 in Little Race/Class Interaction and No. 20 in Alternative Lifestyles Not an Alternative, a category which measures discrimination against homosexuals.
The Princeton Review also placed the school No. 9 in the Major Fraternity and Soroity Scene category and No. 20 in the Students Most Nostalgic for Reagan, a rating based off of students political point of views.
“I don’t necessarily agree with the Reagan rating. I think that we are always labeled a conservative institution because we are a religious school. I just don’t see that much political bias on campus,” fourth-year International Studies and Pre-med Major Greg Rapoprt said.
While some students may feel that the rankings may be slightly inaccurate, others are just happy to have made the ranks at all.
“That’s [U.S. News and World Report] probably about right. We’re not an upper tier school, but we are a very good school,” math, physics and mechanical engineer major Zachary Parvin said. “I think the rankings reflect that.”
