https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
MIT, Columbia, Harvard tied at #2 behind Princeton.
CS now a four-way tie at #1 - the usual suspects, and a significant gap to 5.
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Ties are such a cop-out. Make a decision.
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The website is as slow and glitchy as ever, it’s comforting somehow!
eta: Duke is currently listed at both 9th and 12th on the list, now that is an accomplishment
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At that level ranking is basically arbitrary - just a chance outcome of factors chosen, their weighting, source of data used or discounted,…
Yes, you can come up with numbers that arbitrarily differ at whatever decimal, but in reality there is no meaningful difference in rank or correct order.
It actually does make more sense to group up to 10 schools together and only start a new group whenever there’s a large variance.
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Too funny. A quick read thru shows how absurd these rankings can be. Apparently they can’t figure out if WPI is actually #63 or #68, or if Indiana U-Bloomington is #68 or #76…or if Connecticut College is #50 or #51. I’m sure there are others. Just goes to show they shouldn’t be relied on.
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Maybe they figured a good way to spin 21st.
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How can there be four #1’s… how about four #4’s
USC dropped to #27. Big drop.
Looking at the rankings for National Liberal Arts Colleges, I can’t help but feel that service academies shouldn’t be in there.
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I see Duke at 9, IU-Bloomington at 68 and WPI at 63 - no duplicates for me. The other listed number is last year’s, at least for Duke and IU. (I have WPI at 66 last year).
Maybe they’ve fixed a web glitch.
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There’s not much movement, unsurprisingly. Most of the big ones have already been listed.
Significant moves, relative to their position, in the top 50:
MIT up 2, from 4 to 2
Duke up 3, from 12 to 9
USC down 3, from 24 to 27
UT-Austin up 4, from 42 to 38
Purdue up 4, from 53 to 49
Ohio State up 4, from 53 to 49
UMiami down 6 from 49 to 55
My spreadsheet isn’t complete below 50 from last year, but:
Indiana - up 8 from 76 to 68
UC Santa Cruz down 6, from 97 to 103
UArizona, down 6, from 97 to 103
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Being from Florida I was interested in seeing how their Public Universities did this year since Florida was the only State that still required SAT/ACT Scores
Heres the top 5 in state
University of Florida up 2, from 30 to 28
Florida State University up 3, from 58 to 55
University of South Florida stayed the same, 103
University of Central Florida up 12, from 160 to 148
Florida International University up 25, from 187 to 162
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My issue is with the liberal arts colleges! How much did Williams bribe U.S. News THIS year?!
(it’s a joke but I eagerly await the day Amherst takes #1 again)
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Movement in LACs seem pretty normal in the top 10, but now WASP has exclusive access to the top 4 slots (with Wellesley dropping from a tie in #4 to #5). Things get really interesting in the 10+ range, with Vassar dropping a whooping 9 slots from #13 to #22.
This looks worse for US News than it does Vassar, imo. What could possibly happen in 365 days to warrant that kind of change?
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Here are Forbes rankings - just out
Berkeley #1
Forbes America’s Top Colleges List 2021
Florida actually 25 and that includes the LACs.
Truth is - Florida is making great gains but let’s be honest - it’s not going to be seen in the light of UVA, UNC, Michigan, or W&M (and it’s higher) - it will take a long time anyway.
But obviously many of the Florida state schools are making great strides.
Cal Tech at #40 - almost makes you want to throw the entire ranking out the window!!
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That’s insane! The students there are spectacular.
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Forbes writes “Using a new methodology that counts low-income student outcomes and adds a giant federal database to Forbes’ tally of graduate earnings”.
An emphasis on access and outcomes for students from lower income families will tend to push the prestige privates (especially LACs) down and many public universities up.
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Makes sense - because they are highly different.
Who made US News the Bible.
When I went to grad school, it was Business Week. But it’s now US News.
We should start a College Confidential ranking.
The issue is - kids buy into this stuff to the point that it’s creating such stress and overwork.
I laugh that my son’s engineering school (Alabama) is 96 - yet they have tons of kids who have gotten into so much better school. But they’ve bought (not brought) them to Tuscaloosa. Many of the top overall colleges aren’t highly rated in engineering but I’m sure most look at the overall.
For us it’s fun - but I do think the rankings are dangerous overall. I haven’t studied the changes yet - but it will be fascinating to see if students start changing their lists.
it’s interesting the different colleges eschew them - yet some, like Florida, will take advantage with a briefing or whatever they are doing.
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Please, no. LOL. Imagine the endless bickering that would ensue.
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