Baltimore, Md. -- According to newly-released Carnegie Foundation classifications, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County has moved into the top tier of America's elite research universities. Carnegie classifications, created in 1970 by the non-profit Carnegie Foundation, group institutions by their academic missions and serves as a research tool for scholars of higher education.

"Of the nearly 4,000 colleges and universities nationwide, UMBC is one of only 148 -- the top 3.8 percent -- to be included in this elite category," says Scott A. Bass, Dean of UMBC's Graduate School. The new ranking puts UMBC in the same category as such renowned research universities as Harvard, Stanford, and MIT.

"We are one of only five institutions to move from our 1994 classification, Doctoral II, to the new top tier, Doctoral/Research Universities-Extensive," adds Bass. To achieve Doctoral-Extensive status, an institution must award 50 or more doctoral degrees per year across at least 15 disciplines. UMBC offers doctoral degrees in 18 disciplines. The number of Ph.D.s awarded grew from 34 in 1994 to 58 in 1998.

According to the Carnegie Foundation, the new classifications are based on data gathered from 1995-98 and are an interim step toward developing a more comprehensive set of indicators to be released in 2005.