Magazine ranks Santa Clara No. 2
By David Wilson
U.S. News and World Report ranked Santa Clara second among master's universities in the West in its 2005 edition, marking the 15th year the university has held this position.
Santa Clara has been competing for the top spot with Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, for years, stuck in a one-two relationship and always finishing second. Although Santa Clara has higher freshmen retention and graduation rates, it has been unsuccessful in upsetting Trinity mainly because the Texas school's endowment rates have dominated the master's category.
While Santa Clara's position among Western universities has not changed in recent years, Santa Clara has consistently earned a 4.0 peer assessment score and has one of the highest alumni giving rates, at 24 percent.
Santa Clara's residential learning communities also received recognition as an academic program that aids in student success.
"We are proud of the ranking we do have and are always striving to be better," said Helen Moritz, vice provost for undergraduate education.
Students also seem satisfied. "Anything that improves SCU's recognition is good by me," Senior Luke Sanwick said.
Although he did not base his decision to attend Santa Clara on ratings from a magazine, he was impressed with its high scores.
"When the desire to teach is equal to the desire to learn you can only expect good things like this to happen," sophomore Gabriela Flowers said.
Flowers was impressed with her freshman year and noted that for the most part her teachers were knowledgeable and easy to approach.
Though Santa Clara leads in its freshman retention and graduation rates it has not been able to top the strong financial backing of Trinity. Moritz credits Santa Clara's second place position to this reason alone.
"Trinity is extraordinarily well-endowed and is in a position to attract faculty and students with higher salaries and better financial aid than SCU can," Moritz said.
Santa Clara has the distinction of being the oldest university in California and has one of the largest alumni bases of any university in Northern California.
U.S. News and World Report based its ratings on factors such as peer assessment, student selectivity, as well as financial data such as financial resources, and alumni giving. Peter Cary of U.S. News noted that the ratings cannot give a full picture of a college, but are more of a guide for students to compare important factors, and also to help narrow down their search among the hundreds of choices.
Santa Clara is not included in the U.S. News national ranking with schools like Stanford or Berkeley because it is not considered a top-level research university. Such universities are distinguished by a large offering of Ph.D. programs.
Because Santa Clara is in a different rating category, the school cannot be compared to other top-ranked schools. Aside from its smaller selection of Ph.D. programs, Santa Clara's size and post-graduate focus also set it apart.
University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., plans to focus on positioning Santa Clara against other Catholic universities and working on taking on the role as one of the top five Catholic universities in the country.
Moritz believes Locatelli's goal is worthwhile, even if it does not allow the school to get ahead of Trinity.
"We would have a different type of reputation for excellence," Moritz said.
*Ã Ã Contact David Wilson at (408) 554-4546 or dlwilson@scu.edu.