<p>I was digging around the US News site because I really didn't understand how one college would get a national ranking and one a regional, especially when looking at schools that appear to be extremely similar (size, location, degrees offered, existence of grad programs). I thought maybe "regional" schools were those that pulled the majority of the student body from a smaller geographic area or region. Apparently, that's wrong.</p>
<p>What I found was that a school earns a regional ranking when the majority of the degrees awarded are not in the traditional liberal arts. So, schools known for and awarding more degrees in Business, education, nursing, CJ, exercise science, or a combination thereof will be ranked regionally. Other schools, even though they may have these programs, will be ranked nationally. </p>
<p>I truly don't understand the reason for the two lists. They create a heckuva lot more "top 20/50/100" schools (top 20 nationally ranked LACs, top 20 LACs in each region, top 20 universities, top 20 universities in each region, etc.) but beyond that, this distinction between regional and national seems to serve no purpose, especially since I really had to dig to find the difference. </p>
<p>Can anybody tell me what possible benefit there is to this? It's just one of those issues that makes me curious.</p>
<p>Perhaps a “regional” school carries the same connotations as the term “directional” when applied to state schools does. It’s not a place that someone aspiring to national prominence or competitiveness in any particular area would attend, but if one’s goal is to get a middle-class job locally after graduation, then one goes to a “regional” or “directional” school. The “regional” schools aren’t trying to do the same things as the “national” schools, even though they both may be regional in draw or reputation.</p>
<p>It’s just a way of creating meaningful categories of comparison, I guess. Rowan University is not competing with Princeton in the same academic or societal functions, so to rank them on the same list wouldn’t provide useful information either to the potential Princeton student or the potential Rowan student.</p>
<p>“Regional Universities offer a full range of undergrad programs and some master’s programs but few doctoral programs.”</p>
<p>Per US News, they simply don’t have (or have very limited) doctoral programs. The focus is on undergrads (with very few masters or doctoral students).</p>
<p>The Carnegie Foundation developed the methodology to compare different types of colleges and it is considered the standard tool for any research into higher education. It is not a random definition.</p>
<p>Hope this helps:</p>
<p>U.S. News ranks universities and colleges in three steps.</p>
<p>For the third year in a row, to sort colleges and universities into appropriate categories for comparisons, the 2014 edition of Best Colleges uses the 2010 revisions to the Basic Classification created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. </p>
<p>The Carnegie classification has been the basis of the Best Colleges sorting system since our first ranking was published in 1983, given that it is used extensively as the basis for classifying schools by higher education researchers. </p>
<p>For example, the U.S. Department of Education and many higher education associations use the system to organize or label their data. In some cases the Carnegie classifications are used to determine colleges’ eligibility for grant money. In short, the Carnegie categories are the accepted standard in U.S. higher education. </p>
<p>U.S. News collapses 12 of those Carnegie categories from the Basic Classification into four main groupings: National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges.</p>
<p>It’s not the how so much as the why, and I really do wonder if the difference isn’t just to create more “top” schools, for whatever reason. Rankings are marketed to the public. Classifications that the US Dept of Ed uses for grant eligibility probably aren’t on the radar of parents looking for a college home for Billy and Susie. (I mean if it were, we’d definitely have seen the discussion here on cc.) </p>
<p>So, what is point of ranking Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD as 3rd in the region and Wartburg College in Waverly, IA as 146th nationally. They’re pretty similar, same size, same denominational affiliation, same part of the country, similar grad and retention rates.</p>
Blossom, while the Carnegie categories form the BASIS of USNWR’s dataset USN decides which bucket a school goes into. One example: It took years after West Point and Annapolis were in the National LAC rankings before the Air Force Academy moved out of the Regional rankings to join its sister service schools.</p>