Vanderbilt University moved up a spot to 19th among the nation's top institutions of higher education, according to a recent ranking in U.S. News & World Report's.
"Obviously, we're delighted that Vanderbilt's excellence has been recognized once again," said Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt. "But measuring 'the best' universities is difficult and complex, and it doesn't necessarily make for interesting magazine reading.
"We constantly evaluate our performance by the quality of our teaching and research, and the satisfaction of our students and alumni. By every measure, Vanderbilt is succeeding. The U.S. News & World Report rankings further confirm that."
Vanderbilt tied with Notre Dame at 19 in overall ranking of national universities. Harvard and Princeton tied for first place, followed at third by Duke and Yale, which was ranked first last year.
The 'top 50' rankings included 15 ties, largely the result of a new assessment procedure. Instead of rounding the colleges' scores to the nearest one-tenth, the scores were rounded to the nearest whole number.