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OU Is Number 124 In US News Annual College Rankings


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Ohio University is number 124 in the 2012 US News Best Colleges National University Rankings.

Ohio University Spokeswoman Katie Quaranta says OU ranked 124 in last year's rankings as well.

"Four factors account for a university's ordinal ranking in US News from year to year. First, Ohio University responds to annual surveys from US News. The main survey, completed by the Office of Institutional Research, has 628 questions on 70 pages. US News uses data from the prior year or an average of two or four years, depending on the measure. Data used in the 2012 US News rankings are from 2010-11 and earlier," says Quaranta.

"Second, other universities respond to the US News survey and may update their data or how they respond to each question, as appropriate. Third, US News changes its method each year. Fourth, participation by colleges and universities varies from year to year. The exact same group of universities changes from year to year. Participation by universities in the US News peer assessment survey dropped to 44 percent this year."

Three other Ohio universities ranked higher that OU in the rankings.

They are Ohio State at 55, Miami of Ohio at 90 and the University of Dayton at 101.

The University of Cincinnati is ranked behind OU at 143.

"US News made several changes in its ranking method in recent years, including placing less emphasis on peer assessment ratings and more on graduation rate performance.  They also included ratings by high school counselors. The response to this survey in the last two years was 21 percent and 13 percent, respectively," says Quaranta.

The data gathered on OU for the rankings report says nearly 21,000 undergraduates were enrolled last year.

It also says 85 percent of the students who apply are accepted.

The document below was provided by Ohio University and shows OU's US News rankings since the 2002-2003 school year.