August 2012

SANTA CLARA, Calif. Aug. 13, 2012 — Santa Clara University is ranked among the top 75 of America’s Best Colleges in a list just released by Forbes magazine. SCU is ranked No. 72, dramatically climbing the charts from 318 in 2008.

 

Forbes says its annual list of the 650 best undergraduate institutions focuses on the quality of teaching, great career prospects, graduation rates, and low levels of debt. The rankings are based on five general categories: post- graduate success (32.5%), which evaluates alumni pay and prominence; student satisfaction (27.5%), which includes professor evaluations and freshman- to-sophomore-year retention rates; debt (17.5%), which penalizes schools for high student debt loads and default rates; four-year graduation rate (11.25%); and competitive awards (11.25%), which rewards schools whose students win prestigious scholarships and fellowships like Rhodes, Marshall or Fulbright honors. The complete methodology is available online.

 

Among many attributes, students pick Santa Clara University for its small class size and the individual attention they receive from professors. Forbes points out the 13-to-1 student-faculty ratio. A campus located in the heart of Silicon Valley and a strong alumni base in high-tech companies also allow students more access to internships and careers at companies like Google, LinkedIn, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and many more. As Forbes also indicated, 80 percent of our students graduate within four years, well above the national graduation rate of 53 percent.

 

Santa Clara University is committed to educating the whole person. While its academic excellence is widely known in the fields of engineering, business, and arts and sciences, many courses focus on critical thinking, communication, arts and humanities, global cultures, and ethics. Students often focus their work on projects that make an impact in the world in terms of social justice and sustainability.

 

Some of SCU’s long list of notable alumni include:

 

·   U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta ’60, J.D. ’63

·   Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ’79

·   California Governor Jerry Brown ’59

·   Former Mayor of Los Angeles Richard Riordan ’52

·   Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns author Khaled Hosseini ’88

·   Olympic gold and silver medalist in women’s soccer Brandi Chastain ’91

·   NBA Player Los Angeles Lakers’ Guard Steve Nash ’96

·   Former MLB St. Louis Cardinals Player Randy Winn ’96

 

Forbes’ profile of Santa Clara University is available online.

 

Santa Clara University, a comprehensive Jesuit, Catholic university located 40 miles south of San Francisco in California’s Silicon Valley, offers its more than 8,800 students rigorous undergraduate curricula in arts and sciences, business, theology, and engineering, plus master’s and law degrees and engineering Ph.D.s. Distinguished nationally by one of the highest graduation rates among all U.S. master’s universities, California’s oldest operating higher-education institution demonstrates faith-inspired values of ethics and social justice. For more information, see www.scu.edu.

 

Marika E. Krause | mekrause@scu.edu | 408-554-5126 O | 408-829-4836 C