No. 36.
For USF St. Petersburg, the number marks a milestone. It is the number at which the school made its debut in the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges report.
The rankings are highly influential—a one-rank improvement on the list leads to a 0.9 percent increase in applications, one study showed. Millions of parents and high school seniors have used the report to choose a college since it was created in 1983, and U.S. News & World Report claims to sell 50 percent more magazines and earn 20 times as many website page views when the rankings are released.
The rank is a great accomplishment for a school that has only been independently accredited since 2006. So said Regional Chancellor Margaret Sullivan in a press release shortly after the rankings were released. She and other administrators welcomed the opportunity to inform prospective students, and praised the school’s urban waterfront location, small-campus feel and level of civic engagement.
But those things don’t matter to America’s Best Colleges readers.
According to the same study that found the uptick in applicants after a rank increase, most readers pay attention only to a school’s overall rank, and ignore the informative underlying information. This means that if USFSP really wants to see the benefits of the report, it must improve its rank.
It must become a better school.
USFSP is certainly in a healthier position than it was after the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed it on probation in 2008—its debut ranking is a testament to that. But it has a long way to go if it wants to compete with schools like Virginia’s James Madison University, which ranks No. 2 among public universities in the south. JMU is admittedly a much older school, but a simple comparison on the two makes clear areas where USFSP can improve.
A school’s student-faculty ratio and its class sizes account for a major part of the academic life section of the report. A lower student-faculty ratio and smaller class sizes mean a professor has more time to offer one-on-one interactions with students, which the report looks upon favorably. JMU bests USFSP with its 16:1 student-faculty ratio, compared to 18:1, and offers a higher percentage of small class sizes. Budget cuts have forced USFSP to increase class sizes and decrease the amount of tenured teachers, meaning the university may continue to lose points in this section in the future.
The academic life section of the report also examines the school’s 4-year graduation rate. USFSP’s is not available on the U.S. News & World Report site.
JMU also offers more campus amenities—most notably, health services, a women’s center and a job placement service. USFSP is slated to gain a health center with on-staff nurses upon completion of the new multipurpose student center next year. The university has said it hopes to offer examination rooms, a diagnostic lab, prescriptions, birth control and women’s services, but no formal contracts are in place, and student health fees currently over cover a small amount of the money needed to run them. In the meantime, students must travel to the USF Tampa campus for health needs, and often need to pay an additional fee to access them.
USFSP also lags behind other schools on the subject of student life. While it provides many clubs and activities through Student Government and the Harborside Activity Board, it offers no college athletics of its own—participating instead in USF Tampa’s NCAA I sports—and offers minimal fraternity and sorority opportunities, which hurts its student life ranking. With Residence Hall One being the only on-campus housing option, USFSP delivers limited choices to students in search of single-room dorms or apartments.
USFSP’s respectable debut ranking is worth celebrating. But it’s also worth reflecting upon. No. 36 is good, but there are better numbers. Though budget cuts may bind them, administrators should keep in mind only one number as they guide the school into the future.
No. 1.
