US News & World Report’s annual rankings of the nation’s colleges and universities shows that Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington, D.C., has risen 14 slots since last year to 110th in the National Universities category.
“The things that we’ve been doing at the university are really aimed at academic excellence and ensuring that we have the best environment for our students, says Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, president of Howard University.
Frederick was in a meeting when he received the notification that his school had moved up on the list.
“I saw the email pop up, I opened it, and I was shocked,” he says. “We have had three consecutive years, under my presidency, of double-digit gains.”
The last two years, Howard has experienced a 10-position, then 11-position increase in its ranking, Frederick shares.
“To then come a third consecutive year and go up 14 points was just really, really overwhelming,” Frederick says.
Frederick, both an alum and the 17th president, says that over the course of the past three years of his presidency, he has employed a strategy that would cause movements in the right direction in three areas: graduation rate, retention rate, and alumni support.
