Cal Poly Named Best in the West by U.S. News and California’s Best Public-Master’s University by Forbes

Cal Poly has been named the best public, master’s-level university in the West by U.S. News & World Report’s annual America’s Best Colleges guidebook for the 26th straight year. The 2019 guidebook lists Cal Poly in 12th place overall in the West for all regional universities.

The Western regional list includes public and private institutions in 15 states that provide “a full range of undergraduate and master’s-level programs but few doctoral programs.” (Universities that grant doctoral degrees, such as those in the University of California system, are listed in a separate category.) 

The U.S. News ranking comes on the heels of Forbes naming Cal Poly the No. 1 public masters-level university in the west. “Each of these rankings on its own is an honor; taken together, they paint a clear picture of how Cal Poly is succeeding in its mission to prepare students to be innovative leaders in their careers and solve real-world problems in a global marketplace,” President Armstrong said. “Our faculty and staff work diligently every day with our amazing students to create our renowned Learn by Doing environment. Their efforts are paying off.” The U.S. News rankings methodology focuses on academic excellence, with schools evaluated on hundreds of data points and measures of academic quality, such as graduation and freshman retention rates. Forbes’ methodology favors variables such as alumni salary, student debt, and retention and graduation rates instead of more common metrics such as acceptance rates, endowment amounts and freshmen SAT scores. Read more here and here.