USC academics near bottom of SEC
USC may well be ahead of Clemson on the football field, but in the classroom, recent rankings tell a different story.
U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings, widely followed but often criticized in higher education circles, list USC as the 111th best university and the 54th best public college in its 2012 version, released to the public Tuesday. In 2011, the university was also ranked as the 111th best university but dropped two spots on the public list for 2012.
Clemson came in 68th overall and was listed in the Top 25 for public universities. Clemson is also one of the magazine's 25 "up and coming" universities and was noted as a top-10 university for undergraduate teaching. As an overall university, USC ranks behind Florida, Georgia, Clemson, Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee but comes in ahead of Kentucky and Ole Miss, according to the annual rankings.
USC Provost Michael Amiridis said the drop likely resulted from larger freshman classes, which boosted USC's faculty-student ratio and number of classes with 20 or fewer students.
Those are both considered by the magazine for its annual university rankings. This year, USC's faculty-student ratio was 19 to 1, up from 18 to 1 in 2011. Thirty-eight percent of USC classes had 20 or fewer students in this year's ranking, compared to 41 percent in 2011.
And USC's annual giving rate from alumni dropped from 18 percent in 2011 to 17 percent in 2012.
"I've been to several places that were ranked roughly about the same place that we are, and I know we're better," Amiridis said. "To some extent, you can blame us. You can say, 'OK, Mr. Provost, if this is the case, are you really doing enough to promote the reputation of the university?' And I think that's a fair criticism of our administration and previous administrations. But we are trying to do what it takes to move the reputation of this school forward."
Amiridis said the faculty replenishment program, currently scheduled to hire 200 new professors in the next four years, would lower the ratio and average class sizes at USC.
The provost said the university could easily bolster its rankings by cutting class sizes and becoming more selective. Should the university slash its class size by about 1,000 students, it would improve the faculty-student ratio, the average SAT score and the acceptance rate, all factors considered in the annual rankings.
"Should we care about what these rankings say, or should we remain accessible to a large number of South Carolinians and not worry about the rankings?" Amiridis said. "I believe we should worry about doing the right thing for the students and the institution. If that's done, then I think the rankings will move."
USC was specifically lauded for its University 101 program, its living and learning communities and its undergraduate international business program in the 2012 rankings. The Darla Moore School of Businesses's international program again ranked as the nation's best.
"The Moore School is delighted to have retained our best-in-class No. 1 ranking for our undergraduate international business program while further improving our overall undergraduate programs ranking," said business school Dean Hildy Teegen in a release. "Our faculty and staff continue to lead with our innovative curriculum and programming in ways that clearly resonate with students, employers and our loyal alumni."