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CSULB master’s program ranked fourth best in the West

Cal State University Long Beach recently ranked as the fourth best public master’s university in the West.

CSULB competed with master’s universities in 13 states, from Texas to California to Washington in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 “America’s Best Colleges” guide.

The three public universities ahead of CSULB are Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and Western Washington University.

CSULB also competed against private universities, ending up with an overall ranking of 25 out of more than 115 universities, a three-position jump from last year.

CSULB President F. King Alexander mentioned in a prepared statement the difficulties large public universities face to rank well in the report.

“It is always nice to receive a high rating in any academic rankings. It is a tribute to the ongoing efforts of our great faculty and staff,” Alexander said in the statement. “However, it is particularly difficult for large public universities to rank well under the current methodology.

Most of the criteria overwhelmingly favors small private institutions and underestimates the highly significant social and economic contributions of public universities.” Alexander said he was pleased with CSULB’s No. 3 ranking in the “least debt” category among master’s universities in the West and No. 6 ranking for lowest in the nation.

Currently, 39 percent of CSULB grads leave campus with an average debt of $10,183. Cameron University in Oklahoma ranked lowest in this category, with an average debt of $6,500.

CSULB’s College of Engineering received honors, tying with several other schools for having the 38th best engineering program in the nation. U.S. News and World Report’s survey methodology uses 15 indicators to rank schools.

The publication’s officials assign a different weight to each indicator. Colleges in each category are then ranked against each other based on their composite weighted score.

Some indicators used in the process were peer assessment, retention, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving rate. Peer assessment and retention rates received the largest weight, each accounting for 25 percent of overall scores.

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