GW dropped five spots in this year’s U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best national universities, which were released Monday.
The University ranked No. 67 out of 435 schools for the 2023-24 best national university rankings — tying with five other universities and falling five spots below their No. 62 spot for the 2022-23 rankings. The 2023-24 academic year is the first year that GW has dropped in the U.S. News national rankings since the 2018-19 academic year, when the University fell seven spots from No. 56 to No. 63.
GW tied with Universities of Massachusetts-Amherst, Miami, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Syracuse universities for the No. 67 spot in this year’s rankings.
“In higher education, there are many indicators of excellence, and various organizations assess various metrics,” a University release states. “The university continues to be recognized for excellence in teaching, research and innovation, most recently when it became one of just 71 institutions to receive membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities.”
In the 2022-23 academic year, GW rose to the No. 62 spot, one spot higher than its No. 63 ranking in the 2021-22 academic year and the third straight year the University ascended in the best national university rankings.
U.S. News calculates this year’s best national university rankings based on factors like graduation rate, first-year retention rate, Pell Grant recipient graduation rate, faculty salaries and borrower debt. In previous years, U.S. News calculated rankings using factors like alumni donation average and graduate debt proportion borrowing, but the publication eliminated consideration of the data this year because some universities would not report it since the U.S. Department of Education does not collect the data.
The University’s four-year graduation rate dropped four percent, slipping from 79.2 percent for the class of 2021 to 75.2 percent for the class of 2022, according to the Annual Core Indicators Report. The report also states that first-year students who entered GW in 2021 had a retention rate of 89.6 percent — a 1.1 percent drop from the previous year’s first-year retention rate of 90.7 percent.
