When it comes to Fairfield University and its rankings, I believe that it sits in a solid place in comparison to other universities across the nation, as well as the state of Connecticut.
According to the U.S. News and World Report, Fairfield University ranked in the “top 125 best national universities in 2023” and it also ranked “no. 28 nationally for best undergraduate teaching in 2023.”
According to the most recent Dolan Report, published in the Fall of 2023, the Dolan School of Business is acclaimed to be in the “top 10 best colleges for business majors,” “#2 in accounting grads among top hires at big four firms, “#10 in best value for money in the U.S.” and so much more.
Moreover, The Egan School of Nursing update of 2023, which is published by Fairfield University itself, states that the Egan School of Nursing is “#2 in nursing programs in Connecticut,” “#1 in best college for nursing in Connecticut,” and “top 5% for best colleges for nursing in the nation.”
But how does that make sense? They claim that Fairfield boasts the best college for nursing in Conn, but they also have the second best nursing program in conn. Is that not convoluted?
The College of Arts and Sciences at Fairfield University is stated to be, by the Fairfield University website, “#1 in best colleges for English in Connecticut,” “#1 best in Connecticut for communication and journalism schools and schools for education,” and having “300 student-faculty research projects conducted annually.”
The School of Engineering and Computing, according to Fairfield University’s website, has a “100% placement rate six months after graduating,” is “ranked No.86 in the best undergraduate engineering programs category (no doctorate)” and has “75% of engineering students participating in one or more industry internships.”
After viewing these statistics, first-year Obiako Nwakile stated, “I will say though that these rankings don’t feel as though they are real, like for example, what does ‘#1 best college for nursing in Connecticut’ even mean? It just doesn’t make sense.”
Others are ready to take the ranking ast face value and sophomore Zuriel Guerra said “I think that the rankings are an accurate reflection of how Fairfield is as a whole.” She continued saying “and I do think the engineering section is pretty accurate as a lot of people do end up getting placed in grad school or jobs.”
When asked about how she viewed the rankings that were listed above, Mary Mitchell ‘27 said “I think it’s very impressive for our school to have all these high rankings, especially considering how small we are!” She continued saying “in comparison with other big schools in Connecticut like UConn and Yale, I’m very surprised with how we stand. I’m honored to be a Stag, Stags up!”
These statistics published in their yearly report by Fairfield originate from research done by The U.S News and World Report rank. They ran their national universities and colleges based on 19 criteria, and these criteria are as follows: Graduation rates, first-year retention rates, graduation rate performance, pell graduation rates, pell graduation performance, first-generation graduation rates, first-generation graduation rate performance, college grads earning more than a highschool grad, borrower debt, peer assessment, financial resources per student, faculty salaries, full-time faculty, student-faculty ratio, standardized tests, citations per publication, field-weighted citation impact, publication share in the top 5% of journals by CiteScore and publication share in top 25% of journals by CiteScore.
However, US News have run into controversy surrounding their ranking, as some claim those who pay to be included in their report, in turn garner higher reviews.
All of these factors are put into consideration when considering where Fairfield stands compared to other universities and, honestly, I believe that the rankings are accurate. Fairfield is in a really good place as it is a good school and offers many opportunities for students who go here. Hopefully Fairfield can continue to do better and go higher up in the rankings.
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