By Rory Dulock | Staff Writer
The U.S. News & World Report annual best colleges report was released last Tuesday, ranking Baylor among the best in the nation for undergraduate education and first-year experience.
According to President Linda Livingstone’s Presidential Perspective email, Baylor is a Top 50 private university and a Top 100 university, where it is tied with SMU and five other universities.
“While various rankings provide an understanding of strengths and areas in which you can be better, our continued focus remains on improving our retention and graduation rates, as well as access and affordability for students,” Livingstone said in the email.
Provost Nancy Brickhouse said in an email that the report showcases the well-roundedness of the university and its focus on multiple aspects in education.
“Many of U.S. News category rankings are based on what our reputation is among other higher education leaders,” Brickhouse said. “Well-rounded universities are good at more than one thing. For example, Baylor has a very strong first-year experience. We work to continuously improve on the first-year experience program from a position of strength.”
Brickhouse also said Baylor is strong in undergraduate teaching and research, and the report reveals the university’s mission to provide a well-rounded education.
“It’s also the case that universities committed to a strong undergraduate education are often good at more than one aspect of it,” Brickhouse said. “We are good at both undergraduate teaching and undergraduate research. Our commitment to our students is multifaceted and is revealed by high rankings in multiple categories.”
Among the different categories, Baylor was ranked No. 6 for learning communities, No. 7 for first-year experience, No. 11 for undergraduate entrepreneurship, No. 23 for undergraduate research, No. 26 for undergraduate teaching and No. 26 for most innovative schools.
Dr. J. Wesley Null, vice provost for undergraduate education and academic affairs, said the report ranking Baylor highly in learning communities and first-year experience highlights the collaboration between the Academic Affairs division and the Student Life division of the university.
“Things like our faculty and residence program… the mentorship that our faculty provide to our students – that’s a serious thing that we take at Baylor that has to do a lot with our Christian mission and the desire by our faculty to get to know students on a personal level and help them achieve their goals,” Null said.
Baylor ranking highly in the undergraduate entrepreneurship, research, teaching and most innovative schools shows how seriously Baylor takes research and high-quality teaching.
“If a… student decides to come to Baylor, they’re going to have, I think in many respects, the best of all worlds in terms of a serious research university, an R1 university that’s also deeply committed to its Christian identity, but then also expects our faculty to be high-quality teachers at the same time,” Null said. “So I think we’re occupying a space where we integrate all of those things in a way that’s powerful to students… and I think it’s our Christian mission that enables us to do that.”
An area that Baylor can improve on based on the report is its retention and graduation rates, Null said. He said Baylor moved up in terms of fall-to-fall retention, with the freshmen rising to 90% based on a three-year average done by U.S. News. Null said Baylor had a 90.9% retention rate with the class of 2023.
“But even though we’ve made improvements, we need to do better because there are institutions that are doing a little bit better than us in those spaces, and we need to redouble our efforts to do better,” Null said.
Faculty, students and alumni of Baylor should care about the report because it highlights the continued improvement of a Baylor education, Null said.
“These kinds of rankings… help to extend and enhance the value of a better education, the quality and the standing in the world of a better education,” Null said. “And whether you’re a current student or an alumnus, you need to be proud of that.”
