U.S. News & World Report Ranking

A Message from President James Barker, Clemson University

I am standing here in Clemson’s newest building, the Class of 1957 Rotunda in the President’s Park, and I am here to give you some great news.  I am very pleased to tell you that Clemson has maintained its number 22 ranking, our highest ranking ever, and that last year’s advance into the top 25 was not a one-year phenomena.

We are sustaining the academic quality that we have been building at Clemson. This is our highest ranking ever, and we are in some great company with some of America’s best universities. It is a tribute to the faculty, staff, and students at Clemson. Of course, at the core of what we are doing is our students and we are getting terrific support from our staff, our faculty, and from our alumni because private gifts and participation in giving from our alumni is a factor in the rankings.

What does being nationally ranked mean? What is the value of it? Well, first it increases the value of our Clemson degree. It means that our degree is more valuable than ever. It enhances the image of South Carolina and that it is a good place to live and work and be a part of the academic environment in South Carolina. And further, it helps us continue to attract great students and top faculty and staff to contribute to that environment.

So we know that we made improvements in some key areas and we think these areas are particularly important to our students and their parents. We have record retention and graduation rates, and that is very important. We know that we have higher SAT scores and we have more faculty resources than we’ve had. And we have some of the strongest alumni support in the nation. In fact, just ranked on that alumni participation number, we would be number 4 among public universities in the U.S. So we think these are the areas of most importance to Clemson, and we are very pleased that we showed improvement in those areas. Let me say thank you for your role in making Clemson one of America’s top public universities, and go Tigers!