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September 6, 2019

School daze: WSJ releases 2019 college rankings

PHOTO | New Haven Biz Yale University's Sterling Memorial Library.
By Michael C. Bingham

The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education Rankings for 2019 were released this week. Among Connecticut institutions of higher learning, Yale University led the way, placing No. 3 in the national ranking of more than 800 colleges and universities. 

The annual rankings — second in prominence only to the U.S. News & World Report college rankings — are widely publicized, burnished and massaged by schools seeking a leg up on the competition.

In rankings such as these Yale routinely shares top-five honors with Harvard, MIT, Princeton and others of its ilk (joined by the occasional outlier such as Caltech, which this year tied for fifth place). Such exalted status is routine for the Blue Mother, so Woodbridge Hall and even student media such as the Yale Daily News don’t even take notice. As they say in the sled-dog game: Unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.

The next-highest-ranked institution in the Nutmeg State in this year’s rankings was Wesleyan University, which placed No. 43 on the WSJ/Times list. Placing in the top 50 nationally is pretty good — but not of particular note in Middletown, where they’re used to keeping good company in polls such as U.S. News and this one.

The state’s flagship school, the University of Connecticut, ranked No. 105 in this year’s WSJ/Times ranking. One tactic UConn has used to raise the academic profiles of its incoming freshman classes is routinely to offer full rides to valedictorians at public high schools in Connecticut. And many accept — unless you’re pretty rich, it’s hard to turn up your nose at $60,000 or so a year in tuition and costs paid for by good old State U.

Other area colleges and universities are more eager to tell the world where they stand — especially institutions with lofty ambitions. Over a quarter-century Quinnipiac University (formerly Quinnipiac College) has transformed from mainly a commuter school for business students to a national comprehensive university with professional schools of law and medicine and a polling operation of national renown. This year’s WSJ/Times ranking had the Bobcats (formerly the Braves) at No. 261.

Another school with a broadening profile and rising academic reputation is Fairfield University, which ranked No. 199 this year.

Above 400, the WSJ/Times Rankings do not assign specific number rankings to schools. The University of New Haven and Sacred Heart University were all ranked in the 500-600 range. Above that, no number values are assigned, as in the case of Albertus Magnus College, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of Bridgeport, which were assigned rankings identified simply as “greater than 600.”

The WSJ/Times poll ranks more than 800 U.S. colleges and universities. Even being ranked among them is something to crow about.

“Having Albertus Magnus College included among the Wall Street Journal Times Higher Education Rankings top colleges is a distinguished honor,” said Marc M. Camille, president of Albertus Magnus, which this fall welcomed its largest-ever incoming class.

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