TCU ranks in top 100 universities
By Carmen Castro
Staff Reporter

For the first time in seven years, TCU ranked among the top 100 national doctoral universities, according to the U.S. News and World Report America’s Best Colleges 2004.

TCU’s rank at No. 99 puts it among the top 50 percent of national doctoral schools. This is the first time the school’s ranking has been published.

Dean of Admissions Ray Brown said he has noticed for years that universities with medical or law schools tend to rank higher. Brown said the comparison in demographics is very similar between TCU and higher-ranked institutions, such as No. 73 Southern Methodist University and No. 78 Baylor University, which both have law schools.

“The quality of students is not the same,” Brown said. “Students who get denied here get into both those institutions.”

Looking at the report, Brown said, at both TCU and SMU more than 90 percent of their freshmen graduated in the top half of their class, the number of enrolled females is greater than males and the schools are located in a suburban setting.

Brown said one of the impressive figures is TCU’s average alumni giving rate of 28 percent, which is the third highest among the universities ranked between 50 and 126.

“Our alumni love the university and don’t hesitate to give back,” Brown said.

Director of Alumni Relations Kristi Hoban said alumni try hard to keep members well-informed among its 21 chapters nationwide.

“Everything is going well for TCU right now,” Hoban said. “There’s the building construction, admissions applications are up and, of course, our nationally ranked football team.”

According to the U.S. News and World Report, colleges are first categorized by mission and region. Next, each university’s president, provost and dean of admissions completes a peer assessment survey, which rates peer schools’ academic programs.

Information from each college is gathered and tabulated based on up to 15 indicators of academic excellence, including the average freshman retention rate, percentage of classes under 20, acceptance rate and faculty resources rank.

TCU’s accredited undergraduate engineering program also ranked in the top 50 national programs. According to the article, the program ranks No. 40, up 15 spots from last year.

Lorena Leon, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said it was great to know that the young program is on par with other more established programs in the nation.

“Being a local product from Fort Worth, it’s nice to know I did not have to travel far to find one of the best engineering programs to pursue my education,” Leon said.