USNWR National v. Regional v. LACs

DD is a junior and is preparing her college list. Several of the schools she is considering are “Regional” universities on the USNWR list. I’ve read the description of how colleges are categorized in USNWR and am still a little confused about the difference between National, Regional and Local. Here’s what I think they are saying: Nationals are more research focused and grant liberal arts, pre-professional and graduate degrees; LACs don’t have pre-professional degrees (or very few) and focus on undergrad education; Regionals are more like LACs ( in terms of lack of research/PhD programs and their focus on undergrad education), but offer pre-professional degrees. Is this correct? How did Villanova go from a Regional to a National a few years ago? What is a student giving up by going to a Regional U rather than a National U?

Here’s what USNWR says in their FAQ:

"Like National Universities, Regional Universities offer a full range of undergraduate programs and provide graduate education at the master’s level. However, they differ by offering few, if any, doctoral programs. Of the 656 Regional Universities, 258 are public, 387 are private and 11 are for-profit.

The 322 Regional Colleges – including 116 public institutions, 191 private schools and 15 for-profits – focus on undergraduate education but grant less than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. The Regional Colleges category includes some institutions where only a small number of the degrees awarded are at the bachelor’s level.

The Regional Universities and Regional Colleges are placed into one of four geographic categories: North, South, Midwest and West."

In my experience, the regional schools usually have less name recognition outside their area but are more generous with merit based aid. I think a well balanced college list should definitely include regional schools.

USnews uses the Carnegie classifications for national (aka research) Unis.

Carnegie bumped up 'Nova in 2016.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_research_universities_in_the_United_States

@cuppasbux , that sounds about right to me.

In addition to differences in degrees conferred, or in the balance of undergraduate/graduate focus, there also are differences in governance and in student demographics. It strikes me that many “regional” universities are Roman Catholic. Historically, I suppose they served the needs of upwardly mobile immigrant populations (Irish, Italian, Polish etc.) in large urban communities, as well as the needs of big cities for employees such as municipal workers, journalists, accountants, managers, and school teachers. Loyola University Maryland seems to be a good example of a “regional” school. In 2018, 71% of its undergraduate students came from “middle” (mid-Atlantic) states, while less than 10% came from the south, midwest, southwest, and west combined (according to its Fall 2018 Factbook). 39% of its undergrads majored in business/marketing (and another 10% in communications/journalism) according to a recent CDS.

Lots of regional universities and colleges are public schools that are not the state flagship university. A few states have lots of state “flagships” like CA, and Texas that make national ranks. California State XYZ are all regionally ranked in the western region, U of California campuses, I think all make the national list. California Legislature does not allow PhD programs at any of the Cal State schools.

Some LACs that are not religious, make regional rankings and do well there, but not nationally ranked. For example, Rollins College in Florida is ranked 2 in regional universities south, and its similar to an LAC, with some business degrees. It has no religious affiliation.
Its seems that almost all US states have at least one nationally ranked public flagship, although some are ranked quite low and might be considered less academic than top regionally ranked universities. Say U of Alaska Fairbanks.

Also note that there are now fine subject rankings for PhD programs in subfields like atomic physics and combinatorics. Thats mostly for students looking for particular PhD programs.

USNWR is not a research organization. They are a magazine and always looking for story ideas. In the early 1980’s they hit upon college rankings and it turned out to be a hit beyond what they could have imagined! Of course you can’t sell a new issue every year that says the same thing so they need to constantly tweak the factors, come up with new polls for deans, move colleges from category to another as others have already pointed out, etc. If you look at their 2019 explanation you’ll see the factors include “Expert Opinion (20 percent, down from 22.5 percent in 2018)” and “Outcomes (35 percent, up from 30 percent in 2018)”. And you can bet it will change next year…

Think of it as an amusing read but hardly the last word in evaluation. Don’t worry about what “a student is giving up”.

Here’s what I suggest. Find affordable colleges that offer programs your DD is likely to be interested in (even if she knows her major now, it may change), that are a fit in the many meanings of that word (urban vs rural, size, advising system, type of student, whether a local or larger draw for students, what students tend to do after graduation, etc). Visit colleges while they are still in session this spring of a few types (rural, urban) to help her understand some of fit; they don’t need to be the ones she wants to apply to, this is an exploration.

Pick reaches, matches, safeties. Spend a lot of time on safeties, and do it first; once a kid has ‘struggled’ with the choice of whether Dartmouth or Princeton is their ED choice their safety may feel like an afterthought, but if you read this forum for a while you’ll see that admission can have disappointments. IMHO her most important decision is a safety she’d be happy (even if not ecstatic) to attend. Guidance on all this can be found in a good book on admissions such as “Admission Matters”

No, you’re not going to get this pondering US News rankings. Whether to do it is up to you.

Thank you. Very helpful.

Note that U.S. News itself recognizes a spectrum of schools for their support of faculty-mentored undergraduate research/creative projects:

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/undergrad-research-programs