List is fun, and a guilty pleasure. Sort of like" the 10 most beautiful people in the world" lists.
Anyone who pays too much attention to them in terms of where they apply to school is someone who lacks discernment.
@wisteria100 I’d hate to think that there really are people who make college vs college choices based on USNWR (or other) rankings, but I suppose there are those that do.
The silliest part about the rankings game is watching all of these posters confidently declare as established fact all of their personal speculations about how the rankings have been “manipulated” by USNews or “gamed” by the colleges themselves. Every college does it except their own favorite college, of course.
And watch all the outrage that their favorite college is ranked No. 12 instead of No. 9 because they just know, deep down in their heart, that their college must rank higher than some other school that they have never visited and which they know almost nothing about.
It’s like the swallows returning to Capistrano. You know it is going to happen every year, but it nonetheless brings you joy and amusement every single time.
But honestly nothing really changes. The top 10 and top 20 has remained more or less the same for decades now. Changes with the top 10 are done to create buzz, but that hasn’t shifted peoples perception that HYPSM is top 5. The only time when USNews make a significant impact on a schools standing is when they put it in a different tier and sustain its new ranking for a long time. For example if JHU were able to sustain its previous year top 10 spot over many many years then the perception might change.
@Much2learn The best value is probably the countries least expensive community college. lol
True. If you can make 50k and go to community college and save 250k instead of going to williams to make 50k… you are right. In fact, you’d be 7years ahead of a williams graduate…
Anyway, my point is that they purposely skewed how the did their calculation to punish public schools to obtain their desired result. If they used average cost of attendance for the public schools, that list would be totally different. But they didn’t do that. They used OOS tuition for all students which is misleading.
Has anyone taken a look at the High School Guidance Counselor reputation scores? There was literally a 7% response rate (That is not a typo) among ~1,000 guidance counselor. So, US News is trusting ~70 random high school guidance counselors to rate the quality of universities? No wonder there is such volatility year over year.
@StanfordGSB00
That’s what I’m saying… Why isn’t that portion of the rank replaced with an employers or even grad school Dean reputation rank. It’s quite agitating to know 70 people decide 8% of the entire rank. That’s more than alumni giving…simply strange.
Chicago is skyrocketing in ranking, raising from 9th in 2011, to 3rd in 2016 and 2017.
http://publicuniversityhonors.com/2015/06/13/u-s-news-national-university-rankings-2008-present/
“U of Michigan seems to have dropped a few spots.”
Michigan went from 28-29. The peer assessment score stayed the same at 4.4 with only Berkeley besting it among publics. The school is not “dropping” academically at all:
From the Michigan Record:
The University of Michigan maintained its ranking as the No. 4 public university in U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of the nation’s best undergraduate colleges and universities.
The magazine released its 2018 rankings online Tuesday.
Full rankings list
U-M ranked No. 28 among the nation’s best national universities, down one spot from last year.
University officials noted that what matters most in choosing a school is the match between the particular interests, abilities and ambitions of each student and the specific programs, approaches and opportunities offered by a particular school.
U.S. News also annually ranks undergraduate business and engineering programs.
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business undergraduate program moved to No. 3 nationally, up one spot from last year. It is among the top five schools in six specialties: accounting (fifth), finance (fourth), management (first), marketing (second) and production/operations (fourth
The College of Engineering undergraduate program moved to No. 6, up one spot from last year. In specialty rankings, engineering is among the top five: aerospace engineering (tied at second), electrical (fifth), environmental/environmental health (tied at second), industrial/manufacturing (second), materials (fourth) and mechanical (fourth).
A peer-assessment survey that recognizes universities for its strong commitment to undergraduate teaching ranked U-M No. 6 nationally, up one spot from last year.
U.S. News also released rankings on the top schools that help veterans and active service members pursue an affordable college education. U-M’s Ann Arbor campus ranked No. 9, up eight spots from last year.
Earlier this year, U.S. News released its graduate rankings.
Among the programs ranked each year in America’s Best Graduate Schools — business, education, engineering, law, medicine and nursing — U-M maintained top-15 rankings in all six categories.
Of course. In 2011, they were a crap school like Caltech and JHU, but since then they really worked hard and now they can legitimately claim to be equal to Yale.
From a mathematical perspective, this would almost certainly be a statistical illusion related to data compression. It’s likely that a one point difference in overall score (out of 100) separates the six colleges currently tied at 12 from those currently tied at 18. The same principle would apply for most (but not all) colleges with large apparent rankings changes, whether up or down.
I’m pretty sure Duke dropped from 8th to 9th due to admitting that latest basketball recruit a month ago 
“It’s like the swallows returning to Capistrano. You know it is going to happen every year, but it nonetheless brings you joy and amusement every single time.”
And all CC ranking threads eventually become a discussion of how unfairly Michigan and Berkeley are treated. See UM discussion above. It is like a law of physics.
They must be jumping out the windows at UCB today. Tied with UCLA and USC…
:((
Yes, several relatives had to be talked off the ledge this morning. :))
Also, this morning, another relative can’t seem to stop extolling the virtues of USC to me. :-@
@whatisyourquest if CIT doesn’t get dinged for just being kinda pokey, overly scienced and overly 800-math-maled, life is not fair at all! (not that there’s anything wrong with any of those things, but to be the “best” U in America, maybe be just a bit more… something else too! Have an oboe major or a life-drawing course or something!!)
@Penn95 People’s perception? Ok…That is a highly accurate scientific method for rankings…
@sushiritto I already had to talk myself down from the ledge. Any reason why UCLA has bested Cal in Times and tied in US News?
I believe Chicago is gaming the system by artificially lowering their acceptance rate. For both of my kids currently in college, although they did have a shot at getting in to Chicago, we were inundated with mail enticing the kids to apply. Did not get any such mail of the other top 10 schools. Others I have spoken to about this also had a similar experience. By inundating students with no shot at getting in with mail and emails only to increase the application pool is gaming the system in my opinion. I hope US News takes notice of this.
Also, on a similar note, schools that have done away with the application fee, as well as the specific essay (for that school) are playing a similar game and also getting considerably more applications than they would otherwise. By doing a thorough job of weeding out the students not likely to attend, increasing the percentage admitted through early decision and wait lists, they are able to keep their yield rates up, and artificially decrease their acceptance rates and enhance their rankings. Because they are then rewarded with higher rankings, I suspect other schools will follow suit.
@ANormalSeniorGuy Campus protests? UCLA has a lower admit rate? Better weather? I don’t have a clue. I’m not an alum of any of them, but UCLA’s and USC’s recent rise has created a lot of back-in-forth banter in my family this morning.
@akin67 Other schools don’t need to send mail because of their prestige, ie Harvard, Yale, etc etc. UChicago is just not on the radar of the typical average high school student yet. These institutions receive just as many or more applications as UChicago.