August 2019

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 19, 2019—Santa Clara University has been named in the top 10 percent, at No. 51, of 650 top-tier American colleges and universities ranked by Forbes Magazine in its annual America’s Top Colleges rankings.

Santa Clara, a private Jesuit, Catholic University based in Silicon Valley, also was ranked the 10th best college in the Western U.S. by the business publication; 29th for average early-career salary of its graduates; and No. 42 out of the 400 private universities in the ranking.

“Santa Clara University is proud not just of our increase in ranking in Forbes this year, but also of the hard work and ongoing accomplishments of our faculty and our institution-wide focus on the success of the whole student,” said interim Provost Lisa Kloppenberg.

A few of the recent gains at Santa Clara University include:

• SCU’s retention rate of first-year students is 95 percent, among the highest in the nation.
• SCU ranks 13th in the nation for post-graduation salary levels, as measured by PayScale.
• SCU received a record 16,295 applications for the Class of 2023, the second year in a row the University had more than 16,000 applications.
• In 2018, eight Santa Clara students or recent alumni were selected as Fulbright Scholars.
• The graduation rate of SCU students who entered in 2011 was 90 percent—the highest rate among peer institutions in the Western U.S.

Santa Clara recently announced the launch of a $1 billion fundraising campaign that will enable students to learn more collaboratively, study more globally, and work alongside a more diverse, accomplished, and justice-oriented student body and faculty. The Sobrato Campus for Discovery and Innovation, which will open fall 2021, will be the new collaborative hub for natural sciences and engineering—a state-of-the-art learning and research environment.

Forbes’ America’s Top Colleges ranks undergraduate institutions “that deliver the top academics, best experiences, career success and lowest debt,” according to the publication. To do so, it considers six categories including alumni salaries in early and mid-career, student satisfaction as measured by surveys and first-year student retention rates, and on-time graduation rate. The full list of categories including details on how they are weighted is on the Forbes website.

About Santa Clara University
Founded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valley—the world’s most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The University’s stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Ranked the No. 1 regional university in the West by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education. For more information see www.scu.edu.

Media Contact
Deborah Lohse | Media Communications | dlohse@scu.edu | 408-554-5121