By Jesse Sannicandro
Framingham State University was ranked the fifteenth best college in Massachusetts, and first in the Massachusetts State University System by CollegeChoice.net.
CollegeChoice.net describes itself as an independent online resource for rankings and reviews to help students and their families select an institute of higher learning.
According to the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education 2015 edition, there are 125 colleges and universities in the state of Massachusetts.
Dan Magazu, director of communications at the University, said in an email he was “pleased to see our strong ranking on CollegeChoice.net,” adding he believes “it reflects upon the tremendous value of a Framingham State education.”
President F. Javier Cevallos said he is happy about the ranking.
“When you start a list of colleges, the best in Massachusetts, and you start with – number one, Harvard, number two, MIT, number three, Williams ... when you put all of those to begin with, and we end up 8fteen in that list, that is amazing,” he said.
Christian Amondson, managing editor of CollegeChoice.net, said in an email the ranking comes from a composite of academic quality and return on investment.
“The academic quality factor is composed of multiple data points that measure institutional health and quality, such as faculty-to-student ratio, acceptance rate and institutional reputation. The return on investment factor is a weight of attendance cost versus the average expected early career salary,” he said.
He added, “Our data comes from multiple, publicly accessible data sets, including the National Center for Education Statistics’ IPEDS database, PayScale, U.S. News and World Report and individual college websites.”
Cevallos said rankings such as this are a reflection of the work that faculty and staff put into the institution. He added it is more important to continue enhancing students’ experiences than to pursue a certain ranking.
“It is a side effect. It is like teaching to the test, instead of teaching to the material. We want to teach the material, and that is what we want to continue to improve,” he said.
He added, “Everybody’s working together, and that goes from the people who are working in the residence halls to the people working in the McCarthy Center, to the people in the grounds making sure the campus looks nice and beautiful – everyone is collaborating and working together to make this a better place. I’m really proud of the work that we all do.”
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