NC State has moved into the top 100 public and private institutions in the United States according to the U.S. News & World Report. However, results of annual rankings aren’t of great importance as far as the Office of Undergraduate Admissions is concerned.

U.S. News & World Report recently published its annual “Best Colleges” list for the 2015 year, ranking NC State 95th out of 1,800 public and private institutions. 

“[The office of undergraduate admissions] doesn’t really put a lot of stock into rankings because it’s not just about your rank or the different measures that they use in the various different rankings,” said Thomas Griffin, the director of undergraduate admissions at NC State.

But just because the office of undergraduate admissions doesn’t put a high level of importance on rankings from sources such as U.S. News & World Report or The Princeton Review doesn’t mean they completely disregard them. 

Griffin said it’s a sign of consistency if NC State is ranked highly in different rankings encompassing many different criteria, rather than a select few. 

“Being highly ranked in several different measures shows overall quality,” Griffin said.

In addition to showing overall quality, Griffin said rankings are in alignment with the university’s goals to build its reputation among peer institutions and high schools.  

As far as applicants are concerned, Griffin said North Carolina students don’t necessarily pay as much attention to rankings as out-of-state students do.

“North Carolina students already know us,” Griffin said. “If you’re looking at a school in another state, then you’re going to look for the quality indicators for that school, which could be a ranking.” 

And on the whole, Griffin said rankings have gotten continuously better over the past three years.

In addition to its 95th overall ranking, NC State was also ranked 18th on the U.S. News’ “Best Colleges for Veterans” list.

This ranking, which is seemingly a great accolade for the university, isn’t always an indicator of a perfect system, according to some veterans attending NC State.

“I think that a number 18 ranking is probably misleading in some ways,” said Matthew Smith, president of the NC State Student Veterans Association. “Some schools that are quite veteran friendly aren’t even on the rankings at all.”

NC State has some drawbacks regarding its level of veteran friendliness. For example, NC State  doesn’t have a staffed office that strictly deals with veterans. 

“One of the biggest fights we have right now is that the veteran’s organization is trying to get a dedicated space on campus for veterans,” Smith said.

This would ideally be a staffed office that includes personnel who work for the state Division of Veterans Affairs, in addition to the already existing Veterans’ Education Office that deals primarily with G.I. Bill support.

Smith noted that although UNC-Charlotte has an office dedicated to veterans, the university isn’t even ranked on the U.S. News’ list.

Smith said he is happy about the ranking, but believes that it’s a spot the university should have to earn.

“Great, we got a number 18,” Smith said. “That’s pretty awesome, but we lucked into it.” 

That doesn’t necessarily mean that NC State isn’t doing what it can for veterans, according to Smith.

“[NC State] wants to make this a welcoming place for veterans,” Smith said. “They want to earn that 18.” 

Although the rankings released by U.S. News & World Report may have their shortcomings, they are still good indicators of the quality of NC State, according to Griffin.

“We feel like we are receiving some of the recognition that the university deserves,” Griffin said.