The University of Scranton Ranked in U.S. News

For more than 30 consecutive years U.S. News has ranked The University of Scranton in the top 10 “Best Regional Universities in North.”

            U.S. News & World Report has once again ranked The University of Scranton among the top 10 regional universities in the north, placing Scranton No. 6 in its 2025 edition of the “Best Colleges” guidebook, which became available online today. This marks the 31st consecutive year the U.S. News has ranked Scranton in the top 10 in its category.

U.S. News ranked Scranton No. 6 among “Best Regional Universities in the North” in its 2025 “Best Colleges” guide, marking the 31st consecutive year that Scranton was ranked in the top 10 universities in its category.

U.S. News also ranked Scranton No. 6 in its category for “Best Undergraduate Teaching,” a selection of the top colleges in the nation that express a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.

Three of Scranton’s academic programs were among the top 50 in the nation. U.S. News ranked Scranton among the nation’s “Best Undergraduate Programs in Analytics” at No. 26 in the U.S.; “Best Undergraduate Programs in Accounting” at No. 41; among the “Best Undergraduate Programs in Finance” at No. 43. Other programs also enjoyed national recognition:  “Best Undergraduate Nursing Programs” at No. 149; and among “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs” at No. 190 (where a doctorate is not offered). Scranton’s was also listed among the 584 “Best Undergraduate Computer Science Programs” in the nation. Scranton also ranked No. 248 among America’s “Best Undergraduate Business Programs,” which listed only schools that hold accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

For these program listings, U.S. News only ranked schools holding the highest recognized national accreditations in their fields. The rankings were based solely on dean and senior faculty recommendations from peer institutions.

In addition, U.S. News ranked Scranton No. 53 as a “Best Value Regional University in the North,” which compares academic quality of programs to cost of attendance. This is the 11th consecutive year U.S. News has recognized Scranton as a “Best Value” school. Scranton was ranked No. 116 in its category in “Top Performers on Social Mobility,” which looks at the success of schools that enroll and graduate students who were awarded with Pell Grants.

U.S. News uses data on nearly 20 measures of academic quality to rank bachelor’s degree colleges in America. For its rankings, U.S. News considers a range of quality indicators that include a peer assessment of academic excellence; faculty resources; financial resources; graduate indebtedness; freshman retention; graduation rates; Pell graduation rates, and graduation performance rates, which compares a school’s actual graduation rates with predicted graduation rates based on characteristics of the incoming class. U.S. News ranking analysis also includes student selectivity, as measured by SAT or ACT scores and high school ranking of students in the top 25 percent of their class.

U.S. News categorizes colleges for their rankings based on the official Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification of universities.

The 2025 U.S. News “Best Colleges” rankings became available online Sept. 24.

Marywood Earns Impressive Placements in 2024 Niche College Rankings

Marywood University has earned impressive placements both nationally and statewide in the 2024 Niche College Rankings.
Niche, the leading platform connecting students and families with colleges and schools, used updated data for 4,048 colleges nationwide, featuring updated methodology to better evaluate economic mobility and to reflect the declining importance of standardized test scores.
In comparison with thousands of institutions nationwide and hundreds of institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania, Marywood garnered a host of notable placements, including:


• Best Catholic Colleges in America (#46) and in Pennsylvania (#4)
• Best College Dorms in America (#57) and in Pennsylvania (#5)
• Best Small Colleges in America (#186) and Pennsylvania (#10)
• Colleges with the Best Academics in Pennsylvania (#28)


In the statewide category for Best Small Colleges, Marywood University is the highest-ranking local institution on the list. Additionally, Marywood earned high marks for Best Colleges for Architecture in America (#31), Best Colleges for Education in Pennsylvania (#16), Best College Campuses in Pennsylvania (#18), and Safest College Campuses in Pennsylvania (#23), among positive placements in many other categories.
Niche combines data from sources such as the U.S. Department of Education with user input — reviews and ratings from current students, alumni, and parents — in a thorough analysis of factors including academics, athletics, food and campus life, to name a few. With rich data, tools, and comprehensive profiles and reviews on every college in America, Niche aims to empower students and their families as they embark on the college search process.

PS Bank Nationally Ranked on American Banker List

PS Bank is pleased to announce it has been ranked as the #42 highest bank on American Banker’s list of the Top 200 Community Banks under $2 billion in the United States as published in its June 2023 edition of the magazine.

The 2023 ranking marks the eleventh consecutive year that Peoples Ltd. (PPLL) was included among institutions that are ranked based on three-year average Return on Equity (ROAE). For the fourth time in five years, Peoples Ltd. was the highest-ranked Pennsylvania-based institution on this list.

With a three-year average ROAE of 14.84%, PS Bank continues to be a strong bank proudly serving customers throughout northeastern and central Pennsylvania.

Anthony J. Gabello, President & CEO, said “I am extremely proud of the hard work being done on a daily basis by our PS Bankers throughout the communities we serve. Earning the #42 ranking from American Banker and the highest ranking in Pennsylvania is a testament to the dedicated service we provide to our customers and to our strength as a community bank.”

Marywood University’s MFA Program Ranks Among Top 10 in the Nation

David Plunkert, an nationally recognized illustrator, poster artist, graphic designer, and co-founder of Spur Design LLC in Baltimore, MD, is one of the industry masters who mentor and guest lecture in Marywood’s renowned “Get Your Master’s with the Masters” program.

Marywood University was recently notified that its MFA program, featuring the low-residency MFA Program, “Get Your Master’s with the Masters,” ranks among the top 10 in the nation by Best Value Schools. At #4, Marywood is the only regional institution named in this ranking, which is based on student/faculty ratio and tuition cost, including out-of-pocket expenses. To view Marywood’s ranking, go to bestvalueschools.org/best-mfa-degree/.

Marywood’s distinctive “Get Your Master’s with the Masters” program, a low-residency MFA in Graphic Design, Illustration, and Sequential Art for working professionals, is the oldest low-residency program in the country, designed for those who are working full time, but who are also interested in earning a terminal degree. Marywood also offers a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary MFA in Visual Arts with tracks in Clay, Sculpture, Printmaking, Painting, and Photography.

For more information about Marywood’s “Get Your Master’s with the Masters” low-residency MFA program, go to marywood.edu/visual-arts-graphic-design-illustration-masters-degree. To learn more about the scope of Marywood University’s Art Programs, visit marywood.edu/academics/art or contact the Office of Admissions at (570) 348-6234 or email GoGrad@marywood.edu (graduate) or YourFuture@marywood.edu (undergraduate).

U.S. News Ranks Scranton No. 5 in 2023 Guidebook

U.S. News & World Report ranked Scranton No. 5 among the “Best Regional Universities in the North” in the 2023 edition of the “Best Colleges” guidebook, which became available online today. U.S. News has ranked Scranton among the top 10 universities in its category for 29 consecutive years.

U.S. News also ranked Scranton No. 6 in its category for “Best Undergraduate Teaching,” a selection of the top colleges in the nation that express a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.

“Our students and their parents, our faculty and staff, and our alumni know well and value greatly the quality of the Jesuit education offered at Scranton. However, it is also very gratifying for Scranton to receive such consistently high-marks and recognition from more impartial sources like U.S. News and other national rankings,” said Rev. Joseph Marina, S.J., president of The University of Scranton. “We are delighted U.S. News once again ranked Scranton No. 5 in its latest guidebook.”

Several of Scranton’s programs were also included in national rankings, as opposed to listings by category. U.S. News ranked Scranton among the nation’s “Best Undergraduate Programs in Accounting” at No. 44 in the U.S.; among the “Best Undergraduate Nursing Programs” at No. 135; and among “Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs” at No. 185 (where doctorate is not offered). Scranton’s was also listed among the 537 “Best Undergraduate Computer Science Programs” in the nation. Scranton also ranked No. 219 among America’s “Best Undergraduate Business Programs,” which listed just 516 schools that hold accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

For these program listings, U.S. News only ranked schools holding the highest recognized national accreditations in their fields. The rankings were based solely on dean and senior faculty recommendations from peer institutions.

In addition, U.S. News ranked Scranton No. 54 as a “Best Value Regional University in the North,” which compares academic quality of programs to cost of attendance. This is the tenth consecutive year U.S. News has recognized Scranton as a “Best Value” school. Scranton was ranked No. 145 in its category in “Top Performers on Social Mobility,” which looks at the success of schools that enroll and graduate students who were awarded with Pell Grants.

U.S. News uses data on 17 measures of academic quality to rank bachelor’s degree colleges in the America. For its rankings, U.S. News considers a range of quality indicators that include a peer assessment of academic excellence (20 percent); faculty resources (20 percent), which includes class size and regional cost-of-living adjustments to faculty pay and benefits; graduation rates (17.6 percent); freshman retention (4.4 percent); graduation performance rates (8 percent), which compares a school’s actual graduation rates with predicted graduation rates based on characteristics of the incoming class; financial resources (10 percent); a social mobility score (5 percent); graduate indebtedness (5 percent); and alumni giving (3 percent). U.S. News ranking analysis also includes student selectivity (7 percent), as measured by SAT or ACT scores and high school ranking of students in the top 25 percent of their class.

U.S. News categorizes colleges for their rankings based on the official Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching classification of universities.

Two Geisinger Hospitals Ranked Among Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals

Geisinger Medical Center and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center made Newsweek’s 2021 list of World’s Best Smart Hospitals for their commitment to innovation and advancement in health care.

Only 250 hospitals worldwide were recognized, and Geisinger Wyoming Valley and Geisinger Medical Center ranked 119th and 149th, respectively. They are among only seven hospitals recognized in Pennsylvania and just 89 hospitals selected in the United States. Both medical centers are the only hospitals in their service areas to make the list, and they’re the only two Pennsylvania hospitals recognized outside of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh.

Ranked hospitals were evaluated on five criteria: digital surgery, digital imaging, artificial intelligence (AI), telehealth and electronic medical records.

More than 13,000 votes from hospital managers and health care professionals with backgrounds in health care technology were considered, and every nominated hospital was thoroughly researched and validated by a team of analysts at Newsweek.

Geisinger has long embraced utilization of technology to improve quality of care, catalyze research, and make communication with providers and use of services easier for the patients and members it serves.

Robotic-assisted surgeries allow a higher degree of precision, smaller incisions, less scarring, less pain and discomfort, and the ability to treat areas difficult to reach with the human hand. At Geisinger, the da Vinci Surgical System® is used for less-invasive general surgery, colorectal surgery, thoracic surgery, surgical oncology procedures, OBGYN procedures and urology surgery. Mako® robotic arm-assisted surgery is used to perform partial and total knee replacements and total hip replacements, and Geisinger is the sole provider of Mako joint replacement surgery in the region it serves.

“We value the use of digital systems in our surgical procedures because we know more precise, less invasive surgery leads to better outcomes and shorter recovery times for our patients,” said Ron Beer, chief administrative officer for Geisinger’s northeast region. “We’re honored to be among Newsweek’s World’s Best Smart Hospitals, because it’s a reflection of our continued effort to provide the best possible care, closer to home, for our patients and members.”

Advanced imaging is used in a variety of diagnostic and surgical procedures at Geisinger. These include the cardiac catheterization labs where severe heart attacks and other cardiovascular issues are identified and treated swiftly, and the Comprehensive Stroke Centers — namely Geisinger Medical Center and Geisinger Wyoming Valley — that care for patients with complex strokes and neurovascular conditions.

A robust electronic medical record and advancements in AI and machine learning are at the heart of research initiatives to detect risk of conditions like atrial fibrillation (A-fib) and even death. An innovative ECG Analysis Platform to detect A-fib risk, developed by Tempus in collaboration with Geisinger, was granted Breakthrough Device Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this year. Geisinger is also using AI to improve imaging accuracy, diagnosis and follow-up care. A collaboration between Geisinger and Medial EarlySign to predict hospital admissions and complications was recently named runner-up out of more than 300 entries in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services AI Health Outcomes Challenge.

Telemedicine has been a critical tool in some areas of care delivery for years at Geisinger, but the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic accelerated use of the technology across the system. Since March 2020, Geisinger has enhanced its capability to conduct telemedicine visits and now offers telehealth consultation in 72 specialties.

“When the pandemic began, we expanded our telemedicine capacity to keep our patients safe by making sure they were able to keep their primary care and regular specialty appointments without exposure to COVID-19 infection,” said Megan Brosious, chief administrative officer in Geisinger’s central region. “We already knew telemedicine works, but we’ve learned it has more applications than we thought, has vast potential to reveal new and innovative ways of caring for our patients and members, and aligns with our vision of making better health easier for the communities we serve.”

Crystal Windows Ranked 9th Largest NY Area Minority Firm

The recognition of national award-winning manufacturer Crystal Window & Door Systems continues as the company has again been included in the top business ranking of New York City area minority-owned firms.  In its May 3, 2021 edition, noted publication Crain’s New York Business ranked Crystal Windows 9th on its list of the New York area’s largest minority-owned companies.  Crystal Windows has been included in the Crain’s list for the past 23 years, since 1998.  This year’s ranking represents Crystal’s highest achievement to date with the Crain’s list.

The Crain’s list is comprised of the largest privately held firms that are at least 51% minority-owned and headquartered in New York City or in seven surrounding New York and New Jersey counties.  The ranking is based on annual company revenues from the prior year.  The list, while no longer annual, is compiled and published every few years.  Others on the 2021 list include Goya Foods, Sigma Plastics, and Bartlett Dairy.

“I’m extremely proud that Crystal’s ongoing success continues to be recognized by Crain’s,” said Steve Chen, Crystal’s President.  “With 20 million diverse people and tens of thousands of minority-owned companies in the New York metro area, this makes the recognition even more significant.  It’s all been made possible by our dedicated employees, our great fenestration trade customers, and the appeal of our energy efficient made-in-America window products.”

Crain’s, the region’s premier weekly business magazine, is published in print and online.  In prior years, Crystal Windows and both its Chairman Thomas Chen and President Steve Chen have been featured or included in the magazine’s articles, recognitions, and TV show.  Most notably, Steve Chen was recognized in the past as a Crain’s Top 40 Under 40 Young Business Executive.  Crystal was also the recipient a few years ago of the Crain’s Top Family Business Award.