SDSU Up in U.S. News Rankings

San Diego State University is on an upswing in U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings of the nation’s best colleges, with a top-10 ranking for its international business program.

Released Monday, the 2021 Best Colleges rankings place SDSU at No. 65 among public universities, up from No. 68 last year, and at No. 143 among national universities, up from No. 147.

Compared with the publication’s Best Colleges lists for 2013, SDSU has risen 25 spots from its position for public universities, and is up 22 spots among national universities. (Both 2021 rankings place SDSU in a tie with other institutions.)

“These numbers are part of a story of our commitment to academic excellence, student success and groundbreaking research that will continue with our new five-year strategic plan,” said SDSU President Adela de la Torre. “We selected the title, ‘We Rise We Defy: Transforming Borders, Transforming Lives’ to show the world this commitment will be ongoing as we grow even more in national stature.”

U.S. News & World Report notes its rankings are based on 17 indicators of academic quality including graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, expert opinion, financial resources, student excellence and alumni giving. For 2021, graduate indebtedness was included as a factor for the first time; SDSU was 25th on the list for least federal-loan debt.

SDSU Provost and Senior Vice President Salvador Hector Ochoa said, “The rankings reflect the hard work of our exceptional faculty and staff, who dedicate themselves every day to delivering a high-quality academic and research program for our students.”

In other lists from the new edition of the Best Colleges publication:

• SDSU is ranked No. 8 in the nation for undergraduate international business, a joint program of the Fowler College of Business and the College of Arts and Letters, and No. 36 in entrepreneurship. The overall undergraduate business program is ranked No. 81.

• SDSU is No. 100 in “Best for Veterans,” based on enrollment of and benefits for veterans and active-duty service members.

• SDSU is No. 59 in “top performers on social mobility,” up from No. 66 in 2020. This ranking looks at the success schools have in graduating students from low-income households.

• SDSU stands out in a metric the rankings refer to as graduation rate performance, which compares the actual six-year graduation rate to a mathematical “prediction” based on financial and academic characteristics of its student body.  SDSU was No. 9 in this measure.

U.S. News & World Report will release its annual rankings of graduate programs in March 2021. In the most recent graduate listings, SDSU’s College of Education is No. 50 in the nation and the part-time MBA program in the Fowler College of Business is No. 55.

Four other graduate programs all ranked in the nation’s top 50. Three are in SDSU's College of Health and Human Services: speech-language pathology (No. 25), audiology (No. 29) and physical therapy (No. 49). The clinical psychology program in the College of Sciences, conducted with the University of California San Diego, is ranked No. 33.

In the “Best Colleges in America, Ranked by Value” list released last year by Money magazine, SDSU was ranked No. 74 in the nation among public and private institutions.

In 2019, SDSU was ranked No. 30 in Forbes’ America’s Best Value Colleges.