Top Quarter in U.S.

For the second consecutive year, Dominican University of California has ranked in the top quarter of colleges and universities nationwide in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Ranking 2018.

The Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Ranking is a ranking of US colleges and universities  focused on a university’s ability to deliver valuable outcomes and quality education for its students. Dominican ranked joint 251 this year out of 1,054 institutions nationally.

The ranking adopts a balanced scorecard approach, with 15 individual performance indicators combining to create an overall score that reflects the broad strength of the institution.

The performance indicators are designed to answer the questions that matter most to students and their families when selecting a university. These questions include: Does the college have sufficient resources to teach me properly? Will I be engaged and challenged by my teacher and classmates? Does the college have a good academic reputation? What type of campus community is there? How likely am I to graduate, pay off my loans and get a good job?

The ranking also includes the results of the Times Higher Education US Student Survey, which examines a range of key issues including students’ engagement with their studies, their interaction with their teachers and their satisfaction with their experience.

Data comes from a variety of sources: the US government (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System or IPEDS), the US Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid center, the College Scorecard, and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The ranking is among a growing list of accolades earned by Dominican in the past year.

• In a study appearing in The New York Times, Dominican was recognized in the top 11 selective private colleges in the United States for social mobility. When examining students who were from the bottom fifth of incomes as students and moved to the top fifth of incomes as adults, Dominican placed 11th (top 2%) out of 578 colleges in the peer category of selective private colleges. Dominican placed 74th (top 3%) out of 2,137 public and private colleges nationwide in this measure. The 2017 study was conducted by The Equality of Opportunity Project.
• Last month, The U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges 2018 guidebook once again ranked Dominican as one of the top regional universities in the West. Dominican was ranked 30th out of 126 regional universities in the 13-state Western region, which includes California, Oregon, Washington, Texas, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Hawaii, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Alaska. U.S. News incorporates criteria such as peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, and alumni giving.
• U.S. News also ranked Dominican 34th among regional universities in the west in the “Best Value Schools” category. Dominican also received high marks in the “Campus Ethnic Diversity” category for regional universities in the west.
• This summer, Money Magazine included Dominican in its list of “Best Colleges for Your Money 2017.” In building its rankings, Money focused on the three basic factors that surveys show are the most important to parents and students: quality of education, affordability, and outcomes.
• College planning website College Raptor has featured Dominican University of California as a 2018 Hidden U.S. Gem. Dominican earned a spot in Hidden Northwest Gems. This selection recognizes Dominican based on a combination of factors, including number of applications received, graduation rates, campus diversity, endowment per student, and other key metrics as reported via the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) for the most recently available enrollment year.