OC’s collection of universities got their most important report cards of the year late last month, with the release of U.S. News & World Report’s influential list of “Best Colleges” for the 2024-25 school year.
The digital media co.’s list is now in its 40th year. It assesses the country’s bachelor’s degree-granting colleges on more than a dozen measures of academic quality.
Some 1,500 institutions are ranked for a variety of lists by a multitude of factors, including graduation rates, peer assessments and financial resources per student. This year’s ranking criteria was tweaked, as “acceptance rates, yield and alumni giving are among several factors no longer part of the ranking formulas,” it said.
UCI again took top marks among local schools on the list, placing No. 33 for Top National Universities, matching its highest-ever ranking. On the Top Public Schools list, it ranked No. 9, marking the 10th year running where UCI has placed in the Top 10 for that category.
Chapman University rose 12 spots to No. 121 among Top National Universities, matching its ranking from two years ago. It first broke into the national rankings in 2019. “Chapman’s reputation is on a strong upward trajectory,” President Daniele C. Struppa said in a statement.
CSUF placed a few spots behind in the Top National Universities list, at No. 136, down from 133 a year ago. The school noted that it was ranked No. 7 on the Top Performer on Social Mobility list (down from No. 2 a year ago), out of more than 430 national universities.
U.S. News’ social mobility list assesses schools’ graduation rates of economically disad-vantaged students.
Concordia University Irvine ranked No. 342 among Top National Universities and placed No. 176 on the social mobility list. Its growing nursing program, which is expanding into a new facility in the Spectrum, ranked No. 254 nationally.
For more on Concordia’s expansion and news on OC’s other top schools, see Yuika Yoshida’s work for this week’s Education Special Report, starting on page 15.
Former Microsemi boss James “Jimmy P” Peterson knows how to raise funds; he and wife Sheila Peterson have chaired UCI’s $2B Brilliant Future fundraising campaign, which was made public in 2019 and passed the $1B mark in 2021.
Fundraising for Brilliant Future, which aims to “move UC Irvine’s programs and people to greater heights of impact and influence,” now stands just below its goal at $1.94B, the school reports.
Jimmy P also knows acquisitions: Microsemi made dozens of buys during his tenure, before the Aliso Viejo chipmaker itself was bought for $10B in 2018.
So, no surprise that upstart wireless connectivity firm Mobix Labs (Nasdaq: MOBX), where Peterson serves as executive chair, last week made a move to buy inertial sensor co.
Emcore Corp. (Nasdaq: EMKR) for some $34M; see this page for more on the deal, which would be the biggest move for Irvine-based Mobix since it went public in late 2023.
The big question, which Peterson is no doubt playing a big part in: how will Mobix fund the proposed all-cash deal? Recent regulatory filings said Mobix only had enough cash on hand to operate for a few months.
