NEWARK, September 18- U.S. News & World Report’s 2002 Annual Guide to America’s Best Colleges, published in the Sept. 23, 2002 edition, lists New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) among the nation’s top 249 universities that offer a range of undergraduate majors and master's and doctoral degrees. Many of the schools emphasize research.

NJIT is in the second tier or quartile of the national university list, placing it between numbers 59 and 129. U.S. News lists the institutions alphabetically. Among the other universities in the second tier in New Jersey are Rutgers-New Brunswick, Rutgers –Newark, Seton Hall, and Stevens Institute of T echnology. Beyond New Jersey, the public technological universities include Michigan Technological and Illinois Institute of Technology. Public universities include Maryland, Ohio, Purdue, and Delaware and among the private ones are Boston, Syracuse and George Washington.

The national university category includes institutions with a range of baccalaureate programs that place a high priority on research and award large numbers of Ph.D.s. U.S. News uses institutions listed in the Carnegie Classification as Research I and II to create the national university list. The Carnegie Foundation first classified NJIT as a doctoral II in 1994.

U.S. News uses many measures to determine its rankings including student selectivity, faculty resources, financial resources, graduation rate, alumni satisfaction and an academic reputation questionnaire sent to university presidents, provosts and admissions directors.

NJIT is a public, scientific and technological research university enrolling more than 8,800 students. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees to students in 80 degree programs throughout its six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. The division of continuing professional education offers adults eLearning, off campus degrees and short courses. Expertise and research initiatives include architecture and building science, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and science, information technology, manufacturing, materials, microelectronics, multimedia, telecommunications, transportation and solar astrophysics. Yahoo! Internet Life magazine cites NJIT as a "perennially most wired" university.

Contact Information:

Sheryl Weinstein Public Relations (973) 596-3436