N.C. State plunges in U.S. News college rankings - James Gallagher, Triangle Business Journal

Actions taken due to budget cuts hurt N.C. State University in U.S. News & World Report’s most recent rankings of colleges and universities. The magazine, which released its 2011 college rankings on Tuesday, ranked the state’s largest university at No. 111, down from 83rd a year ago. The drop is not particularly surprising. One of the criteria U.S. News uses for its ranking is the number of students in each classroom, and due to budget cuts, NCSU had to slash the number of classes it offered and substantially increase class sizes.