By Kara Little, News Editor
Susquehanna has risen 18 places in the 2020 U.S. News and College Ranking list since last year, making the school No. 117 out of 223 universities ranked in the National Liberal Arts Colleges list, according to the U.S. News and World Report.
Susquehanna tied with six other schools, including Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., and Drew University in Madison, NJ.
The rankings are based “according to their performance across a set of widely accepted indicators of excellence,” according to the U.S. News and World Report website.
The schools are grouped into 10 different categories, including but not limited to national universities, regional universities and regional colleges.
Within each group, factors like graduation rate, faculty resources and financial resources are taken into consideration when determining the rankings.
Another one of the factors taken into consideration is social mobility, in which Susquehanna ranks 105 out of 215 universities, which determines how well schools graduated students who received Pell Grants, which are normally awarded to students that come from a household that earns less than $50,000 annually. It is no coincidence that Susquehanna continues to jump in the ranks, and even though the 2019-2020 academic year just started, students have already seen improvements this year as well as throughout their time here overall.
When senior Tolu Ilori was asked about her experience with the academic rigor at Susquehanna, she stated that “it will obviously increase as the levels go up, but I think that my classes have allowed me to understand situations better.”
Junior Israel Collazo-Luciano said that “it has gotten more difficult” for him as the years have gone on,” but he expects that for the life of a college junior.
One improvement he believed that Susquehanna could make in order to improve its overall rankings are by allowing “professors [to] have more freedom in what they can do in classrooms and not restrict them in what they have to teach in order to fit the requirements of the class.” Collazo-Luciano said Susquehanna should allow professors to “teach to their best potential.”
Regardless of Susquehanna’s ranking in the present or future, Tolu noted that “learning happens everywhere” and “if you can bring what you have learned outside of the classroom into your education, then you are becoming more knowledgeable.”
