APSU received recognition on Tuesday, Sept. 10 for being one of the top military-friendly schools and moved up 18 spots in the US News yearly college rankings.
Last year, APSU was ranked 87th on the US News regional rankings. APSU falls into the ‘South’ region and is ranked as 69th in the 2013 rankings.
Also on Tuesday, Sept. 10, Victory Media released their picks for the top 20 percent of military-friendly universities, which included APSU. According to a Victory Media press release, this is their fifth year of compiling the list. The schools are chosen based on their recruitment and retention of military students.
According to the press release, Victory Media surveyed over 12,000 schools before choosing the top 20 percent.
For the US News college ranking list, 1,800 universities were evaluated. An APSU press release said US News changed their methodology somewhat, giving post-education performance a greater weight in the score than the profiles of students that the school recruits. This shift allows US News to measure the value of education the school provides.
One way APSU helps students complete their college career efficiently is through Degree Compass, the press release said.
The president of Victory Media, Rich McCormack, sent APSU a statement, saying APSU was chosen because it showed interest in recruiting military students.
A recent Washington Post article questioned the usefulness of the rankings. The article pointed out that many objective scores – like student output – are weighed heavily in the final ranking. However, US News still gives 22.5 percent of the final rating to the “undergraduate academic reputation.” This is a subjective score awarded by officials at competing schools and accounts for almost a quarter of a school’s final ranking.
