Emerson has maintained its spot at No. 13 in this year’s Best Regional Universities North Rankings and is tied with two other colleges, according to the latest update by U.S. News & World Report.
Emerson is tied with Siena College, Ithaca College, and Manhattan University.
“Emerson College is ‘one-of-one’ in higher education: a unique institution focused on excellence in the arts and communication. There is no other college like Emerson,” said Associate Vice President and Strategic Communications & Media Relations Michelle Gaseau in an email statement to The Beacon.
Several students said they see Emerson reflecting its rank in different ways, including academic performance.
Linnie Phan, a first-year business of creative enterprises major, attributes the ranking to Emerson’s acceptance rate. She “wasn’t surprised [of the ranking] because the acceptance rate is moderately low” and thinks the school is “selective.”
While U.S. News & World Report says that Emerson’s acceptance rate is 43% with an early acceptance rate of 59%, Emerson’s admission rate has increased to more than 50% in the past year, President Jay Bernhardt said during the faculty institute earlier this month.
While the college has lower acceptance rates compared to other universities, the site also factors in Emerson’s focus on arts, communications, and the liberal arts.
U.S. News stated last year in their approach that “rankings should be used as a tool for discovering the best fit schools [for a student]; combined with personal considerations and additional resources.”
Financial aid has been an ongoing issue that has raised many concerns over affordability at Emerson. Last year, the college owned the top spot for the worst financial aid as reported by the Princeton Review.
Ranked at 53rd in Best Value Schools by U.S. News, this list uses data based on academic quality and affordability. To ensure valid comparisons, each school’s score is compared to overall rankings around others.
“They are not very generous with financial aid, so that could be a contributing factor [to the current rank],” said first-year visual media arts major Ava Hansen.
In Most Innovative Schools in the North, Emerson ranks 3rd on U.S. News’ website. Innovation rankings are determined by “improvements in terms of curriculum, faculty, students, campus life, technology or facilities,” on U.S. News’ website.
“As a consequence of this incomparability, the U.S. News & World Report ranking and its specific categorization of colleges cannot encapsulate all the elements that make Emerson valuable and impactful. We celebrate the significant contributions Emersonians make in the arts and communication and the creative role they play in the world,” Gaseau said.
U.S. News added that “some institutions that made the Most Innovative Schools lists may not place highly in the overall rankings.” Depending on the “universal factors,” ranks will vary.
Student resources, including the writing and wellness centers at Emerson, have helped first-year VMA major Kyra Kolim.
“I think Emerson is actually a school where a lot of people can benefit,” Kolim said. “They have a strong liberal arts curriculum. I feel like their film and theater curriculum are very popular.”
Some students said they feel they are offered many opportunities and experiences exclusive to Emerson.
“I love working here. I love working with freshmen. I think that it’s a really cool opportunity for students to get to work with other students,” said residential assistant Samantha Autumn. As a theater education major, her experience as a resident assistant is helping with what she wants to do in the future.
Emerson’s resident assistants voted to unionize last year and Autumn appreciates that the college is working with them.
“Emerson is trying to listen to the students in light of what happened last year,” said first-year writing, literature, and publishing major Finn Dunkelberger.
