Office Of Institutional Research

The Origin of Clemson's Peer Institutions

In the fall of 1995, ten peer institutions were chosen for benchmark comparison purposes for Clemson University. These ten institutions were chosen on the basis of several deciding factors. They should possess the following similar characteristics to Clemson: (1) should be a land grant institution; (2) have similar programs such as Architecture, Engineering, Business, and Agriculture; (3) should be a Carnegie Classification Research I institution; and (4) be similar is size. In addition, they should be able to attract students from all over the nation and the world with recognized programs and have a similar award base of funded research.

When the search was complete, the list was narrowed to ten schools: Auburn, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Michigan State, N.C. State, Purdue, Virginia Tech, University of California at Davis, Mississippi State and Texas A&M. Since Clemson has historically been compared with the University of South Carolina, it was decided to add the University of South Carolina to the list, making a total of eleven peer institutions. This list was taken to the Board of Trustees of the university by President Curris and was approved. Recently, the Board of Trustees chose to replace University of California at Davis with the University of Nebraska Lincoln.

Below is a table of Clemson's peers with links to each institution's home page and to each office that is the equivalent of Clemson's Office of Institutional Research & Planning.