Our University

Rankings, Honors and Distinctions

Updated March 2009

Colorado State University leads the world in many disciplines including infectious disease, atmospheric science, clean energy and environmental sustainability. We offer some of the best professional programs in the United States in veterinary medicine, occupational therapy, business, journalism, agricultural and construction management, as well as recognized programs in the arts, humanities, and social sciences.

30% of all of Colorado's science, math, engineering and technology majors pursue degrees at CSU.

• CSU graduates more Colorado residents than any other university.
• Colorado State University is the "university of choice" for Colorado residents – 30% of all of Colorado's science, math, engineering and technology majors pursue degrees at CSU.
• Colorado State is ranked in the prestigious top tier of the U.S. News and World Report's rankings of "America's Best Colleges and Universities."
• Colorado State is consistently one of the top public universities in the United States in terms of educational quality and affordability according to Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine.
• U.S. News and World Report recently ranked CSU 36th on its scale of popular schools based on where students actually choose to go.
• CSU’s Animal Cancer Center is the largest center of its kind.
• The Professional Veterinary Medicine program is ranked second in the nation by U.S. News and World Report and is ranked first in the country in federal research dollars.
• BusinessWeek magazine ranked the Colorado State University College of Business as one of the top undergraduate business programs in the country for 2009.
• CSU established the state's first School of Global Environmental Sustainability to streamline the university's internationally recognized environmental research and to prepare students for the growing "green" workforce.
• The Occupational Therapy Department has been ranked among the top 10 master's programs in the nation by U.S. News and World Report, the Gourman Report and Peterson's Guide.
• The College of Agricultural Sciences consistently ranks in the top 10 in the country in terms of awards, grants and contracts received.
• Colorado State University's graduate engineering distance degrees offered through the Division of Continuing Education have been ranked a "Best Buy" by GetEducated.com.
• The 2008 Royal Award for Sustainable Technology Transfer was presented to CSU Fort Collins at COPENMIND for clean tech innovations in three different areas: an international clean cookstove project, two-stroke engine conversion kit and the next generation of biofuels production from algae.
• The Energy and Engines Conversion Laboratory at CSU Fort Collins is the largest independent engines lab of this kind in North America.


The Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory is confronting the global energy challenge through innovative research.

• Colorado State ranks first in the state in certification of math and science secondary teachers.
• Colorado State University and its 87,000+ Colorado-based alumni account for more than $4.1 billion in household income, representing 3.1 percent of Colorado’s total household income.
• Envirofit International, a CSU spinoff company, is developing what The New York Times calls "the first market-based model for clean-burning wood stove technology" for application in the developing world.
• A CSU team of mechanical engineering students recently placed third with their innovative robot at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Student Design Competition.
• The CSU hurricane forecasting team has become internationally recognized for its highly anticipated hurricane forecasts through the year.
• CSU scientists created the world’s first engineered solar-heated and -cooled building.
• Annual research expenditures of $302.6 million in fiscal year 2008 represent a 51% rate of growth in five years.
• CSU researchers were awarded the largest single grant, $1.5 million, to study biofuels. The research will aim to accelerate work in the development of new crops for cellulosic biofuels.
• CSU has been recognized with a top award from the United State Department of Agriculture for its Clean Energy Supercluster.
• The university is home to the only Centers for Disease Control laboratory of its kind outside of Atlanta, Ga.
• The Rocky Mountain Regional Biocontainment Laboratory at CSU has formally received "select agent" research approval from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, making it the first National Institutes of Health’s NIAID laboratory of its kind in the country to begin studying highly regulated bioterrorism agents.
• CSU is consistently one of the top-ranking universities in the nation for the recruitment of Peace Corps volunteers.
• The Corporation for National and Community Service named CSU to the 2008 President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll "with distinction."
• CSU’s outreach and community partnerships have earned the moniker of a Carnegie Community Engagement university.
• The Templeton Foundation named Colorado State among the nation's leading higher education institutions that encourage student character development.
• CSU presents more than 300 world-class music, theatre and dance performances; exhibitions; and other high-profile arts events annually.


University Theatre's production of "The Distance From Here," was named Best Production at the 2008 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival.

• For the first time, Colorado State University's theater program swept the awards at the annual Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in February 2009 in Moscow, Idaho. CSU students won every event that they entered for a total of five awards.
• Colorado State placed second in the nation in the Grand Champion competition for RecycleMania, finishing with a cumulative recycling rate of 51 percent of the total waste generated on campus - up from 41 percent the previous year.
• The prestigious Rocky Mountain Institute in Snowmass has selected CSU for a national study on best practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on college and university campuses.
• The CSU Live Green Team shared its expertise in and its commitment to sustainability by handling the recycling sorting at the Democratic National Convention, August 25-28, 2008. CSU’s efforts helped the DNC Committee achieve an 85 percent diversion in resource recovery.
• CSU is home to several critical natural resource and outreach centers, services and programs:
• The Colorado State Forest Service maintains 17 district field offices throughout Colorado.
• Colorado Water Resources Research Institute (CWRRI), an affiliate of Colorado State University, exists for the express purpose of focusing the water expertise of higher education on the evolving water concerns and problems being faced by Colorado citizens.
• CSU touches every Colorado county through 59 Extension Centers. It is the only university in the state that serves Colorado’s young and old, urban and rural, from agriculture communities to new energy technologies.
• The CSU Extension 4-H program is the largest in the state reaching more than 100,000 young Coloradans annually, more than half in urban communities. No other Colorado university has this reach around the state.
• CSU is internationally known for its research developing clean energy solutions, and this includes programs in alternative fuels, clean engines, photovoltaics, and other solar energy production capabilities, "smart" grid technology, wind engineering, water resources, and satellite-based atmospheric monitoring and tracking systems.
• Graduation rates for student-athletes that exceed those of the student body, going from 51% in 2003 to 68% in 2008;  a 17 percentage point increase