Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects the magazine's judgments about which measures of quality matter most. The colleges are ranked against their peer group based on their composite weighted score. Student selectivity includes scores on the SAT or ACT of accepted students. Financial resources are measured by the average spending per student on instruction, research, student services, and related educational expenditures. Graduation rate performance is measured by the difference between a school's six-year graduation rate for the class that entered in 1991 and the predicted rate for the class.
Alumni giving rate is a proxy for alumni satisfaction.
As with all surveys, it is important to keep the results in perspective. Even the best-rated schools are often not pleased with the rankings because the choice of criteria and weight assigned is subjective. However, research shows that the better the prospective students, the more attention they pay to third-party evaluations of colleges, including rankings. We are happy to be recognized for our accomplishments. I am honored to announce we have embarked on a three-year campaign to raise scholarship funds for CSU, Chico.