More ?tiers?

Still reeling from U.S. News and World Report recently labeling it a “third tier” institution, the UA gets another bit of bad press in the October issue of Kiplinger’s.

The personal finance magazine ranks the top 100 “best buys” in public universities, or in other words, where you get the best degree for your money. It factored in tuition, graduation rates, number of students per faculty members and average SAT and ACT scores.

According to the report, the UA is the 66th best bang for the student buck. It was preceded in the rankings by neighbors the University of Texas (No. 22), Texas A&M (No. 23), University of Missouri (No. 27), University of Missouri-Rolla, (No. 34), University of Kansas (40), Ole Miss (42), Mississippi State University (57), University of Texas-Dallas (60) and Oklahoma State University (63).

Kiplinger.com allowed us to sort the list by several categories including four-year graduation rates, for which the UA rated No. 87 out of the 100 schools at 20 percent. The UA was 96th in six-year graduation rates at 45 percent.

One other note not previously reported is that Webster University, which has a satellite campus in Fayetteville, made U.S. News and World Report’s top 25 in the Midwest.