If most people know anything at all about the Carnegie Classifications—and many don’t—it starts and stops with one phrase: R-1.
“Research 1,” the term the classification system attached to universities with the strongest research base, has in some quarters become synonymous with the “best” institutions, just as the most selective colleges are often assumed to be at the top of the heap. Governing boards, state legislators and ambitious campus leaders often make pursuing (or sustaining) R-1 status central to their strategic plans—sometimes prioritizing it over other goals that might serve their students or communities better.
