UNLV among top universities in region

Friday, Aug. 21, 1998 | 1:30 a.m.

Harvard, Princeton and Yale universities share the No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of the nation's top universities, and UNLV got a nod as one of the better regional institutions.

Also, the magazine rated the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Virginia as the nation's top public universities.

UNLV was ranked seventh among public universities and colleges in the western United States, according to the report released today. U.S. News & World Report has published the rankings in its 1999 America's Best Colleges guidebook, which will be on newsstands Monday.

"It (the ranking) serves as an acknowledgement of the hard work students, faculty and staff have done to make UNLV a superb university recognized by a national audience," UNLV President Carol Harter said.

Last year, UNLV was ranked 40th in its region by the same publication.

The magazine rated 1,400 colleges and universities by mission and region, using 16 indicators of excellence, including academic reputation, the percentage of graduating students, faculty pay, class size, student-faculty ratio, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni support.

In the same region and category under which UNLV was judged, Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo was No. 1, Western Washington University was second and four other schools were tied for third through sixth place.

Other top universities nationwide were Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University, sharing the No. 2 spot; Cornell University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania, sharing No. 3; and California Institute of Technology at No. 4. Brown University, Columbia University, Dartmouth College and Northwestern University shared No. 5.

The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill was second among public universities behind Berkeley and Virginia. UCLA and the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor shared the No. 3 spot. The University of California-San Diego followed at No. 4. The College of William & Mary was No. 5.