<p>What is the difference between "Master's Universities" and "National Universities", going by the different terminology used on the USNews rankings?</p>
<p>How do they differ academically, admissions-wise, reputation-wise, and socially?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>They tend to give out master's degrees as their highest ones, and tend to be more regional.</p>
<p>They are easier to get into, but not necessarily lesser than national universities and LACs. Until last year, for example, URichmond was the #1 school in the South for master's universities, now it's #34 in the national LAC category.</p>
<p>BTW, the categories are established by I forget which body, but USN explains it in their ranking guide. I think to move to the national categories, you have to have a certain % of students from outside your state/region.</p>
<p>terrifictom,</p>
<p>a masters university is a university which its highest degree awarded is generally a masters. this obviously isnt always true as some of those masters universities have a handful of doctorate programs. generally the best ones would compare to the 50-100 range on doctorate universities.</p>
<p>masters universities are not research focused - which is why they arn't "national doctorite" universities. however, it doesn't have to do with where students are from. the UCs have over 90% of their students from california and are obviously much more regional than schools like villanova which have a greater number of students from all over the place.</p>
<p>Everyone's descriptions are correct: The term "Master's University" is one of the former classifications developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education. They no longer use the term, since they've developed a more detailed classification scheme, and it's not clear what USNews (which made the Carnegie Classifications widely known) will do as the result of the Carnegie's changes: For more than anyone needs to know about this topic:</p>