The 2010 edition of the much-anticipated U.S. News and World Report’s America’s Best Colleges guidebook ranks Queens College (QC) among the top 10 public universities in its category.
QC also leapt into the Top 50 of all peer colleges rated in its category, of colleges with a full range of undergraduate and master’s programs but few, if any, PhD programs.
This achievement comes on top of QC being recognized as one of the 50 “Best Value” public colleges and universities nationwide by Princeton Review for 2009.
“We’re always gratified when external reviewers confirm our academic excellence,” said James Muyskens, president of Queens College. “The quality of our students and faculty is on a par with some of the best universities in America,” he said.
In the popular college guidebook The Princeton Review’s The Best 371 Colleges, only about 15 percent of 2,500 U.S. four-year colleges and two Canadian colleges are profiled.
In the profile of Queens College, The Princeton Review quotes students who call QC “the Harvard of the CUNY system.”
“In fact, more than half of our faculty were hired in the last seven years after proving themselves at institutions such as Yale, Harvard, MIT, and Princeton,” Muyskens pointed out.
According to students interviewed – who describe themselves as “education and career-oriented” – the college provides “great and challenging programs” that are “unique and comprehensive,” as well as teachers who are “easy to talk to and very helpful.”
The diversity is also a major advantage: “There is no ‘typical’ student at Queens College, and that’s what’s great about the student body,” said students who described QC as “a diverse and dedicated community,” where every racial, ethnic and religious background is represented and learns from one another.
Also known for its serious, hard-working student body, Queens College once again is ranked among the nation’s top 20 “Stone Cold Sober Schools,” as well as among the 20 U.S. colleges with the least drug and alcohol use on campus.
Among the academic achievements for this year, the review noted that nearly half of QC classes have less than 20 students – an increase of 13 percent over last year, while only 2 percent of classes have 50 or more students.
The quality of applicants has also gone up.
SAT scores of applicants are up 50 points, to 1180 at the top of the range, and the college reports a more than 50 percent increase in the number of QC students accepted to the tuition-free Macaulay Honors College (Macaulay honors students have an average SAT score of 1343).
Because more academically gifted students are applying for admission, Queens College is becoming more selective, with an acceptance rate of 38 versus 40 percent last year.
“We’re even more gratified that our new initiatives are bearing fruit and raising the bar even higher for us,” Muyskens said.
Founded in 1937, the school, located on a 77-acre campus in Flushing, has more than 19,500 students who come from over 140 nations. QC was named one of the nation’s 25 “hottest” and “most interesting” colleges by the 2008 Kaplan/Newsweek How to Get into College guide.
The Princeton Review also rated QC one of America’s 100 “Best Value Colleges” in 2009. For more information on Queens College, visit www.qc.cuny.edu.
The college opened its first residence hall in August 2009. Information on the Summit at Queens College can be found at https://www.thesummitatqc.com/main.html.
