Still trails Clemson, most of SEC nationally, among public universities
USC has dropped slightly in the US News & World Report's annual college rankings for 2013, falling further behind Clemson and remaining behind most SEC schools for another year.
The rankings list USC as the 115th best school in the nation, a drop from 111th last year, and the 55th best public school, a slide from 54th in 2012. This is the second consecutive year that USC has seen a drop in its public school ranking; from 2011 to 2012, it dropped from 52nd to 54th.
Clemson, while a loser three years running on the football field, has outranked USC for another year in both the overall and public school categories, at 68th nationally and 25th among public universities.
Among SEC schools, USC falls in the bottom half, above only Kentucky, Arkansas, LSU and Ole Miss overall. Faring no better in the public school rankings, USC outranked only those same four schools in the SEC. Recent conference additions Texas A&M and University of Missouri both topped USC nationally, ranking 65th and 97th, respectively. Texas A&M and Mizzou also ranked 23rd and 42nd among public schools, respectively.
The university's international business program, however, held on to the first-place position for the 16th year in a row. The Darla Moore School of Business also gained ground, moving from 42nd best business school in 2012 to 40th in this year's rankings.
Despite overall drops, USC was still described as a "more selective" school. The university admits 63.1% of undergraduate applicants and the freshman class admitted for this fall had the highest freshman class SAT average on record.
"The important academic indicators clearly show that we continue to improve the quality of the education provided to our students," Provost Michael Amiridis said in a statement. "The University of South Carolina and its faculty and students are much better than the overall reputational ranking created by the U.S. News calculations, and I'm confident that our recent innovations, such as the new Carolina Core Curriculum and USC Connect, will eventually have their impact and result in higher future rankings."
USC's Aiken, Upstate and Beaufort campuses all ranked in the top 10 public regional schools, with USC Aiken and USC Upstate in the top two spots. USC Aiken and USC Beaufort held strong in the first and eighth spots for the second consecutive years, while USC Upstate rose from third to second.