Reader’s Digest recently named SMU the 16th safest college in the nation. The magazine gave SMU an “A” for safety and placed it in the “lower” category for reported crime rates.
SMU’s ranking makes it the safest private university in Texas. It is also the second safest university in Texas after the University of Texas, which placed sixth. A survey of several topics determined the rankings of the 135 universities in the nation that participated.
The survey included notification systems, orientation programs, fire systems and security measures. The magazine also collected data on reported crime rates to further classify the schools.
SMU earned the “lower” rating with its statistics on murder, manslaughter, forcible sex offenses, non-forcible sex offenses, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, arson and motor vehicle theft. The statistics were from 2004 and 2005.