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U.S. News & World Report August 2009

Gonzaga University remains the No. 3 best university in the West in U.S. News and World Report's annual college rankings for the "Universities - Master's" classification. Gonzaga also remains No. 3 in the West for best value and alumni giving, while Gonzaga's undergraduate engineering program is ranked No 26 in the nation.

Gonzaga ranks No. 3 among the top 57 schools in its classification for alumni giving as 23 percent of living undergraduate alumni from the Spokane, Wash.-based Jesuit and Catholic university gave back to their alma mater in 2006-07 and 2007-08, an indirect measure of student satisfaction. Among Gonzaga's peers, only the University of Dallas (29 percent) and Mills College (California; 24 percent) had higher alumni giving rates. Gonzaga's School of Engineering and Applied Science tied with six other schools as the No. 26 best undergraduate engineering program in the nation.

The rankings mark the 15th consecutive year (22nd in the past 25 years) that Gonzaga has been ranked among the West's best universities. Gonzaga became the third-best university in the West (Universities - Master's category) three years ago after having been ranked No. 4 for the four previous years. Gonzaga retained the No. 2 best average graduation rate among all schools in its classification, and held the second-best average freshman retention rate in the West (master's category) as 92 percent of GU freshmen who entered from 2004-2007 returned the following fall.

The overall ranking of No. 3 in the West is based on a host of indicators of academic excellence, including the following categories: peer assessment (25 percent); graduation and retention rates (25 percent); faculty resources (20 percent); student selectivity (15 percent); financial resources (10 percent); and alumni giving (5 percent).

Gonzaga is rated the No. 3 best value based on the 2008-09 average annual cost of $24,323 (after receiving need-based grants. Fifty-six percent of GU students received need-based grants in 2008, and the average discount from the total cost in the 2008-09 academic year was 39 percent.

The rankings of undergraduate engineering schools are based solely on a 2009 peer survey of deans and senior faculty that asked them to rate the programs with which they are familiar on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished).

The "Universities-Master's" classification includes 572 universities within four geographical regions - North, South, Midwest and West - that provide a full range of undergraduate and master's programs.

Gonzaga's mission to care for the individual student and support the growth of the whole person - mind, body and spirit - is evidenced by its 11-to-1 student-faculty ratio (2008). Only 2 percent of Gonzaga's classes include more than 50 students, and 44 percent include fewer than 20 students in 2008, and 45 percent included fewer than 20 students (2008). Gonzaga also ranks high in the publication's measure of the academic quality of incoming freshmen. Sixty-nine percent of Gonzaga freshmen who entered in fall 2008 ranked in the top 25 percent of their high school class.

Highlights of the college rankings are scheduled for publication in the Sept. 2009 issue of U.S. News & World Report magazine, available for newsstand purchase on Monday, Aug. 24, and in the 2010 America's Best Colleges guidebook that goes on sale Aug. 25. The rankings also are posted online at www.usnews.com. 

The Top 10 "Universities - Master's" in the West: