U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 edition of its “Best Colleges” guidebook includes a range of rankings tables, from a list of the best national universities to a breakdown of “A-Plus Schools for B Students.”

Hawaii’s colleges and universities don’t get much recognition on the lists.

One of the most encouraging takeaways is that Hawaii’s higher education institutions excel when it comes to ethnic diversity.

Students walk on UH Manoa campus February 2, 2014.

UH Manoa ranked 168th out of 201 on the U.S. News & World Report’s 2015 list of “Best National Universities.”

PF Bentley/Civil Beat


The University of Hawaii at Manoa tied third with the University of Nevada — Las Vegas among national universities with the greatest ethnic diversity. Asian Americans make up the largest minority group at UH Manoa, accounting for 42 percent of the school’s students. (The top score went to New Jersey’s Rutgers University, where 25 percent of the students are Hispanic.)

Meanwhile, UH Hilo tied second for ethnic diversity among national liberal arts colleges. Like UH Manoa, its largest minority group consists of Asian Americans, who make up 20 percent of the student population.

And both Chaminade University and Hawaii Pacific University got top marks for ethnic diversity among regional universities. Both also report Asian Americans as the largest minority group.

But the other rankings are less promising.

While UH Manoa did make it onto the “Best National Universities” list, it ranked 168th out of 201.

HPU ranked 80th out of 84 on the list of best universities in the Western region. (Chaminade University made it onto the unranked second tier of the same list.)

HPU also ranked 27th out of 29 on the list of best colleges for veterans in the Western region.

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