Top Performer | Eastern North Carolina Now

Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of ECU News Services. The author of this post is Crystal Baity.


    East Carolina University remains one of the top performers in social mobility among national universities in North Carolina, according to a new ranking.

    ECU also is one of the top five nationally ranked public universities in North Carolina, along with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C. State University, UNC-Wilmington and UNC-Charlotte, according to U.S. News and World Report's 2021 Best Colleges rankings released Sept. 14.

    ECU ranked as a Top Performer in Social Mobility — 33rd out of 202 universities — placing it in the top 16% of schools in the category considered in the Best Colleges ranking. ECU moved up from 39th last year, which was the first year that U.S. News evaluated how well schools graduated students who received federal Pell Grants.

    Pell Grants typically are awarded to students from households whose family incomes are less than $50,000 annually, with most going to students with family incomes of less than $20,000 a year. In general, the higher a school's Pell graduation rate is relative to its non-Pell graduation rate (up to the rates being equal), the better it scores, according to U.S. News' ranking methodology.

    Among the best national universities, ECU is listed 109th among 209 public schools nationally, and 217th out of 389 national universities — up from 228th last year. ECU tied with several other universities in both those rankings.

    U.S. News changed its methodology from the previous year by adding data on graduate indebtedness but giving less weight to SAT/ACT scores, high school class standing and alumni giving rates.

    Scores for each institution also factor in graduation and retention rates, graduation rate performance (comparison of actual to predicted six-year graduation rates), social mobility, undergraduate academic reputation, faculty resources, and financial resources per student.

    In other rankings released this year for undergraduate programs:

• ECU's engineering programs ranked 91st out of 220 institutions, placing it in the top 41% of schools ranked. The rankings are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty at peer institutions. Separate rankings were created for 206 programs at schools that offer doctoral degrees in engineering and for 220 engineering programs at institutions where the terminal degree in engineering is a bachelor's or master's degree.
• ECU's business program ranked 273rd out of 511 institutions (top 53% of schools ranked). These rankings are based on surveys of deans and senior faculty members at peer institutions with undergraduate programs accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business. Responses from the two most recent years were used to calculate weighted average scores.
• ECU's computer science programs ranked 262nd out of 481 institutions (top 55% of universities ranked). The rankings are based solely on the judgments of deans and senior faculty members of computer science departments that met at least one of the following criteria: offer an ABET-accredited computer science bachelor's degree program; or award a bachelor's degree in computer science and award doctorates in computer science or engineering; or be a regionally accredited institution that awarded at least 20 bachelor's degrees in computer science, according to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System.

    U.S. News provides rankings for national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional universities and regional colleges. More information is available on the U.S. News website.