Baylor makes U.S. News’ short list of best schools for both undergrad teaching & research

Only a fraction of the schools U.S. News reviews each year come out with high scores for both undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research opportunities. Baylor now ranks among the top 40 nationally in both categories — part of a short list filled with schools such as Duke, Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Yale.

Overall, U.S. News ranked Baylor the No. 75 national university in the United States for 2021, placing BU among the top 20% of schools nationwide. For the 10th straight year, Baylor came in as one of the top two universities in the Big 12 Conference and one of the top five in Texas.

In the Big 12, Baylor was ranked behind only UT (No. 38); other Big 12 schools followed: TCU (83), Iowa State (122), Kansas (122), Oklahoma (127), Kansas State (162), Oklahoma State (187), Texas Tech (213) and West Virginia (249). (For the curious, the Big 12’s four newly announced members are No. 79 BYU, No. 148 Central Florida, No. 148 Cincinnati, and No. 179 Houston.) Here in Texas, Baylor came in just behind Rice (17), UT (38), SMU and Texas A&M (tied at 68).

When it came to specifics, Baylor was ranked 15th nationally for best first-year experience, 17th for best undergraduate research opportunities, 33rd for best undergraduate teaching, and 34th for on-campus innovation.

The new rankings come on the heels of word that Baylor should reach Research 1/Tier 1 status by 2024 — which would make Baylor the nation’s first Protestant university to earn that recognition, adding a unique voice to the table when researchers nationwide are discussing how to tackle our world’s biggest problems.

All in all, it makes for a strong report card for Baylor this fall.

Sic ’em, Bears!