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Top ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï NewsCenter Stories of 2016

We say goodbye to 2016 with the top 10 ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï NewsCenter stories of the year.

Monday, December 26, 2016
Hepner Hall (Photo: Jeff Ernst)
Hepner Hall (Photo: Jeff Ernst)
It was quite a year for ºÚÁϳԹÏ. In 2016, the university saw a rise in rankings throughout many disciplines, an increase in graduation rates, athletics teams excel and receive its largest donation in school history.

Here are the top 10 ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï NewsCenter stories from the past year.



The Great Give, ºÚÁϳԹÏ’s first-ever day of philanthropy, raised nearly $140,000 from more than 700 gifts. The 24-hour online event on Oct. 25 benefitted students, faculty, research, and important campus programs.



ºÚÁϳԹÏ’s premier orchestral and wind ensembles united with the Aztec Concert Choir to present an evening unlike any other for San Diego music lovers. Featuring more than 250 musicians, the mega-concert took place at the Jacobs Music Center in the historic Copley Symphony Hall.



ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï graduation rates rose to a record-high, with approximately 74 percent of first-time freshmen graduating in six years or less, up from 68 percent last year. This year’s cohort of 5,011 first-time freshmen have an average 3.7 high school GPA and an average two-part SAT score of 1,117.



A team led by astronomers from ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight identified the new planet, Kepler-1647 b, which is the largest planet in size and orbit of any circumbinary planet discovered to date. Kepler-1647 b is 3,700 light years away and approximately 4.4 billion years old, roughly the same age as the Earth.



In the most recent Institute for International Education’s Open Doors report, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï ranks No. 9 in the nation for total number of students studying abroad. When compared to the percentage of university enrollment, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï ranks No. 1 for public universities.



For the first time in history, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï was listed as one of the nation’s best institutions for undergraduate education by the Princeton Review. ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï was rated highly for its admissions, academics, financial aid, quality of life and sustainability efforts.



ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï defeated Wyoming, 27-24, to win its second consecutive Mountain West Conference championship.  The conference title was ºÚÁϳԹÏ’s third in the last five years and the 21st in program history.



An endowment from the National Institutes of Health will help ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï build its capacity to conduct pioneering public health research and become a hub for health disparities research for years to come.



U.S. News & World Report released its annual rankings of America’s Best Colleges, listing ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï at No. 74 among public universities and No. 146 overall among national universities. Since 2011, ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï has climbed 37 spots on the annual list.



ºÚÁÏ³Ô¹Ï received the largest philanthropic gift in its history. Local philanthropist and San Diego Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler and his wife, Alexis, pledged a $25 million endowment gift to ºÚÁϳԹÏ’s College of Business Administration.
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