| SFSU Public Affairs Press ReleasePublished by the Public Affairs Office at San Francisco State University, Diag Center. |
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - September 25, 2000 - San Francisco State University was ranked 1st in terms of its reputation among its Western University Tier 2 peers, according to this year's U.S. News & World Report annual rankings. The U.S. News & World Report ranking formula gives greatest weight (25 percent) to reputation because a degree from a highly regarded institution is of utmost importance in terms of assisting graduates land good jobs or gain admission to top graduate programs. The reputation survey also allows top academics to account for aspects of an institution that are difficult to quantify, such as faculty dedication to teaching. Presidents, provosts, and deans of admission are asked to rank a school's reputation. Participants were asked to rate peer schools' academic programs on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished). If an individual was unfamiliar with an institution, they were asked to mark "don't know." Also included in the category are ten other campuses of the California State University system, of which San Francisco State is part. San Jose State and Long Beach State - also CSU campuses - tied for second place in the reputation rankings. This year's ranking also listed San Francisco State as 5th nationally in the number of transfer students enrolled in Fall 1999, the year on which the data is based. San Francisco State enrolled 3, 470 transfer students in the Fall of 1999, only 375 fewer students than first place University of South Florida, with 3,845. Among Western Universities, of which there are 112, San Francisco State was ranked 10th in terms of campus diversity. In calculating diversity, U.S. News created a formula that looks at both the total proportion of minority students at a university-not including international students-and the mix of racial and ethnic groups. The formula used by the influential publication gives a scale ranging from 0.0 (the least diverse) to 1.0 (the most diverse). On this scale, San Francisco State was ranked of .66. In Fall 1999, 29.6% of students identified themselves as Asian American, 11.2% as Filipino, 7.6% as other Latino, 7.4% as African American, 7.0% as Chicano, Mexican American, 0.8% as Pacific Islanders, 0.8 as American Indian and 30.8% as White Non-Latino. This year's rankings also points to San Francisco State's relatively low percentage of classes with 50 students or more (16%), and a relatively strong freshmen retention rate (79%). A highly diverse community of 27,000 students and 3,500 faculty and staff, San Francisco State was founded in 1899 and is one of the largest campuses in the nationally recognized 23-campus California State University system.
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Last modified July 27, 2000, by Office of Public Affairs