Emerson Moves Up in U.S. News Ranking

Emerson College has risen in the rankings of U.S. News & World Report’s 2017 Best Regional Universities in the North, moving up two spots to #8 this year, while maintaining its #10 spot on The Hollywood Reporter’s list of Best Film Schools in the country.

In moving Emerson from #10 to #8, U.S. News cited the College’s 88 percent retention rate, and the fact that 67 percent of freshmen were in the top 25 percent of their high school graduating classes. Emerson also had one of the lowest acceptance rates among institutions in the category, at 49 percent.

Just over 22 percent of U.S. News’ ranking is based on assessments of academic excellence by presidents, provosts, and deans of admissions at peer institutions, tied with graduation and retention rates as the criteria given the most weight.

Emerson came in at #4 on U.S. News’ list of Best Colleges for Veterans in the Regional University (North) category. Criteria for the list include: certification for the GI Bill, participation in the Yellow Ribbon Program (additional financial support on top of the GI Bill); enrollment of 20 or more students on the GI Bill; and a U.S. News ranking in the top half of the institution’s category.

U.S. News ranked Emerson’s Communication Sciences and Disorders #20 in the nation for speech-language pathology graduate programs, in a four-way tie with Penn State, the University of Maryland, and the University of Nebraska. 

In August, the College was once again deemed the tenth best film school in the nation by The Hollywood Reporter, which touted Emerson’s “great industry connections” and “super-aggressive” internship program. The article also cited Emerson’s new BFA in Comedic Arts and the Los Angeles campus in its ranking.

Emerson was ranked in the top ten on Best College Radio Station, Best College Theater, and LBGTQ-Friendly lists for 2017 by the Princeton Review.

For the past two years, website College Factual has named Emerson the top Journalism program in the country, a ranking published in USA Today earlier this year. “The journalism program at Emerson teaches students a dynamic approach to storytelling…” and graduates of the program have higher-than-average starting and mid-career salaries, according to the article. New College Factual rankings this year include #3 in Film/Video/Photographic Arts, which was also published in USA Today, #6 in Marketing, #7 in Communication and Media Studies, and #8 in Radio/TV/Digital Communication. 

In its 2015 ranking of “top startup colleges,” Forbes called Emerson the 13th Most Entrepreneurial, citing the Emerson Experience in Entrepreneurship (E3) minor. The College also has a competitive startup accelerator program, Emerson Launch, and this year began offering a new Business of Creative Enterprises major.