Delaware State University continues to rank among the top public Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the country.
For the third straight year the U.S. News and World report ranks DSU fourth among public HBCUs nationwide.
Delaware State jumped up from ninth place on the list in 2016. It currently ranks 13th among HBCUs overall. North Carolina A&T, Florida A&M and North Carolina Central ranked above DSU on the public list.
“I know them to be quality schools with very similar objectives in the public HBCU space. So we feel like we’re in good company in that regard, and these rankings directionally give us a sense of where we should be going,” said DSU Executive Vice President Provost Tony Allen
The rankings are weighted with metrics including student outcomes, faculty resources and a peer assessment survey.
Allen notes the importance of a new metric measuring the success of students receiving federal grants based on low-income status.
“The idea is to make sure that we are not simply looking in the aggregate around student performance, but disaggregated by background, geography and income status,” said Allen, who will take over as the school's president in January.
DSU receives grant funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to support low-income and first generation students.
The freshman retention rate at DSU is 72 percent—about 6 percent above the national rate.
The University of Delaware ranked 91st overall on the U.S. News and World report list of universities nationwide. UD ranked 39th among the nation’s public universities.
