TANNER TRUAX
Special to The Leader
Students at SUNY Fredonia have one more reason to be proud to be attending school here.
Every year, the U.S. News & World Report composes a ranking of the nation’s universities. This year, they have bestowed upon Fredonia the title of 13th best value public college in the north.
U.S. News & World Report is a leader at ranking universities, colleges and high schools across the nation based on “15 diverse measures of academic quality.”
Such qualities taken into consideration are tuition cost, student-teacher ratio and post-education employment rates, to name a few.
When all the numbers were crunched, Fredonia fared quite well, considering there were just over 40 public schools in the ranking.
The admissions department here on campus wasn’t too surprised to see Fredonia’s ranking.
“Fredonia has been consistently ranked highly on U.S. News and World Report since they first started ranking colleges and universities. We have been ranked as a Best College for the past 30 years.” said Cory Bezek, the executive director of enrollment services.
These rankings have been used by the campus for years to boast Fredonia’s impressive academic quality to potential students.
“Rankings and awards [are] something we always like to brag about, so it is part of our message for incoming students and their families. They may not know exactly where we are ranked, but they know about the quality of our education,” said Bezek.
Anytime Fredonia is listed among the best college list, it also acts as a type of well-deserved advertisement that puts Fredonia on these college shopping lists. According to Bezek, these rankings “put Fredonia on the radar” for students who may not have otherwise known about the college.
This isn’t Fredonia’s first rodeo; the college’s recognition and awards go far beyond just this one ranking.
SUNY Fredonia, according to Bezek, has won much more recognition with Money Magazine naming Fredonia as one of the top colleges in the country for quality and affordability; Princeton Review placing Fredonia on the 2020 list of “Best Northeast” colleges for overall quality as well as placing Fredonia among the best “Green Colleges” for sustainability; and Kiplinger’s placing Fredonia on its Best College Values list for 2019.
This is just in the last year alone.
Another factor to consider is most of Fredonia’s number neighbors that join it at the top of the list are other SUNY and CUNY schools.
“Having other SUNYs on the list speaks to the quality of a SUNY education,” said Bezek.
The SUNY public college system may deserve some credit, as it is well known to be one of the best public college systems a state has to offer in the nation. With its student-teacher ratio and net cost being lower than the national average, New York is ranked at a cozy number 10 out of 50 states for “best state for higher education,” according to a 2017 study conducted by SmartAsset.
Rankings, such as U.S. News and World Reports, as well as the admissions department, are a great source for numbers and information, but when it comes down to it, it’s the students and alumni that prove what Fredonia’s education is worth.
“Speaking from a music student’s view point, I think we deserve that 13th spot if not higher,” said Ben Santos, a junior music education major. “Our program is on par with some conservatories and, compared to other schools, we treat our fine arts students well. I can’t speak for other majors, but I think I get my money’s worth.”
“I spent a lot of money but I feel it was worth it,” said Samuel Utley, business management major and Fredonia class of 2018 alumni. “I got a job less than a month after graduating and the business courses I took helped me prepare for my career. Even courses that weren’t business, such as public speaking, for example, made me comfortable speaking with my clients.”
When it comes to a SUNY Fredonia education, it appears all can agree that being number 13 isn’t so unlucky after all.