CU campuses, programs ranked in magazine's 2011 'Best Colleges' issue

University of Colorado campuses and undergraduate programs remain well-regarded at the regional and national levels among public and private universities, according to the 2011 edition of U.S. News & World Report's Best Colleges.

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs tied for seventh place among the top public universities in the West. The University of Colorado at Boulder ranked in 39th place among the top 50 "Best Public National Universities," and the University of Colorado Denver's downtown campus ranked 106 among the top national public universities. Other highlights include:

• UCCS' undergraduate engineering program tied for seventh among universities whose highest degree is a bachelor's or master's.
• CU-Boulder's undergraduate engineering program came in at 18th among public universities whose highest degree is a doctorate.
• CU-Boulder's undergraduate business program came in at 22nd overall among public universities.

U.S. News & World Report rankings are based on its measures of academic peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving. According to the magazine's editors, "national universities" are the 262 U.S. universities (164 public and 98 private) that offer a wide range of undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral degrees.

The rankings are available at www.usnews.com/colleges. Highlights of the magazine's annual rankings of more than 1,400 colleges will appear in the September issue, on newsstands Monday, Aug. 31. The magazine's 2011 Best Colleges guidebook will be available in bookstores and on newsstands Monday, Aug. 24.