Baylor’s undergraduate experience rises in latest U.S. News rankings

Even after U.S. News made significant changes to its rankings formula — changes that heavily benefitted public universities — Baylor remains ranked among the top universities in the state, conference and country.

More importantly, Baylor jumped into the top five nationally for First-Year Experience (No. 5 overall) and the top 10 for Learning Communities (No. 10), while remaining among the top 25 in both undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research opportunities. In other words, even leaders of other universities are recognizing the incredible college experience offered at Baylor.

“It’s rewarding to have our peer institutions and others again recognize Baylor’s high-quality undergraduate programs and how much we deeply value the undergraduate student experience,” says President Linda Livingstone. “U.S. News & World Report has historically been an important component of the college choice calculus for many prospective students, and we are encouraged to see that even as the focus shifts toward social mobility, Baylor is well-positioned to build on its undergraduate success.”

For the 12th straight year, Baylor was named one of the top two schools in the Big 12 Conference and one of the top five in Texas. Overall, Baylor maintained its status as a top-50 private university (No. 47) and a top-100 national university (No. 93), ranking among the top 25% of all major universities nationwide. In Texas, Baylor came in behind only Rice, Texas, Texas A&M and SMU, and ahead of such universities as TCU, Houston and Texas Tech.

In the Big 12, only UT (No. 32) came in ahead of Baylor. Other Big 12 institutions in the rankings: TCU (98), BYU and Iowa State (tied at 115), UCF and Oklahoma (tied at 124), Houston (133), Cincinnati (142), Kansas (151), Kansas State (170), Oklahoma State (185), Texas Tech and West Virginia (tied at 216). BU also came in ahead of future Big 12 members (and AAU schools) Arizona State and Colorado (tied at 105) and Arizona and Utah (tied at 115).

In other categories, Baylor was ranked No. 38 for Most Innovative Schools, and No. 61 among the Best Colleges for Veterans. Notable academic programs include undergraduate entrepreneurship, which was ranked the best in Texas and No. 8 nationally; undergraduate nursing (up eight places to No. 31); undergraduate accounting (up six places to No. 38); and undergraduate business (up to No. 62).

As we’ve frequently noted — such rankings don’t tell the whole story of what you get at Baylor, but when you start to add them all up, it paints a pretty impressive picture.

Sic ’em, Bears!