Rice University ranks among the top 20 best national universities on U.S. News & World Report's list for 2009, and it made the top 10 on the magazine's "Great Schools, Great Prices" list.
Rice is 17th among 262 schools classified as "national universities" -- institutions that offer a full range of undergraduate majors, master's and doctoral degrees and are committed to producing groundbreaking research. Last year Rice tied for 17th with Emory University, which dropped to a three-way tie for 18th on the new list.
The U.S. News rankings, which will be published in the Sept. 1 issue, are based on seven measurements of academic quality: assessment by administrators at peer institutions, graduation and freshman-retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving and graduation rate performance -- the difference between the proportion of students expected to graduate and the proportion who actually do.
Rice is 10th on the magazine's list of best values among national universities. The magazine correlated the schools' academic quality in the 2009 ranking with the 2007-2008 academic year net cost of attendance for a student who received the average level of need-based financial aid. In essence, the higher the quality of the program and the lower the cost, the better the deal.
For more on the rankings, visit www.usnews.com.