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Editorial Board

Students should be concerned with individual schools’ ranks, not SU’s

By The Daily Orange Editorial Board

In the U.S. News and World Report National University rankings released Wednesday morning, Syracuse University fell from No. 58 to a current ranking of No. 61. Despite the drop, this news should not be of major concern to students.

Though united under the name of Syracuse University, the university is distinctly sectioned off among each of its specialized programs and colleges. Because of this, the slight drop in ranking of SU as a single institution should not alarm the students when the university houses several professional schools and colleges that are consistently highly ranked.

Professional schools on campus, including the School of Architecture, the School of Information Studies, the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, are each well-regarded within their respective industries.


When most students studying in the professional schools graduate and apply for jobs, the name of their specific college will precede that of the university.



In the same way, students experience the larger part of their academic careers at SU in their specialized programs. Therefore, the standing of the university as one entity does not necessarily apply to a student in the Whitman School, whose undergraduate business school was just ranked in the top 50 by the U.S. News and World Report for 2016.

Though students must be more invested in the rankings of their specific college than that of the university, it is important that the university continues to foster a spirit of consistent improvement to its academic programs and its prestige as an institution of higher education.

In his inaugural speech last year, Chancellor Kent Syverud announced his plans to improve the College of Arts and Sciences, to strengthen and build it into “an unrivaled” centerpiece of the university. Focusing on the school’s largest college will help its ranking, adding to the list of well-respected professional programs on campus.

As the university works toward universal improvement, the rankings of the professional schools should take precedent over that of the university in its entirety when it comes to the academic and professional concerns of SU students.





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