<p>I did a quick spot check of about a dozen colleges in the USNWR Top 25 National Universities that provide Common Data Sets. The factors I looked at only account for about 35% of the ranking weight and any conclusions have the potential to be swamped by a colleges change in its PA score. So, take the following with caution and with a grain of salt. Here are some changes that I found from last year to this year:</p>
<li> Vanderbilt is going to move up in the rankings as it improved Freshman Retention, 6-year Grad Rate, % of Top 10% students, and Acceptance Rate. While Im not sure how to score it, Vanderbilt also saw a 15 point improvement in its average SAT score and a very impressive 1-point gain in its average ACT score.<br></li>
<li> Cornell is also going to move up. I base this on an improvement in class size over 50 students and a very good improvement in Top 10% students (3%) and Acceptance Rate (4%). Cornell slipped, however, its student/faculty ratio.</li>
<li> Carnegie Mellon should move up. CMU improved it Freshmen Retention, 6-Yr Grad Rate and a whopping 6% change in Acceptance Rate.</li>
<li> Yale could move up. The school improved its Freshmen Retention and Top 10% scorers.</li>
<li> Northwestern could also move up as the school increased its average SAT by 25 points (highest that Ive seen this year) as well as positive improvements in Top 10% scorers, classes under 20 students and Acceptance Rate. These may be partially offset by declines in Freshmen Retention and classes over 50.<br></li>
<li> Emory looks like a loser. While many numbers showed a positive change (6-Yr Grad Rate, classes with under 20 students, classes with over 50 students), they experienced an enormous decline in Top 10% students (-13%). This may be an accounting issue and whether they count their Oxford students. It will be interesting to see how/if they finesse this in the actual USNWR report.</li>
<li> Among the publics, I think that U Virginia may be in for a fall. While slightly improving 6-Yr Grad rates and Acceptance Rates, the school fell slightly in Top 10% students and classes over 50 students. Perhaps most significantly for their rank, however, is that the school experienced a 15-point drop in the average SAT and this in a year when most schools were increasing their average SAT score.</li>
<li> Other major publics like UCB and U Michigan had some positives and negatives. UCB saw a slight decline in 6-Yr Grad Rate, but this was likely offset by slight gains in classes under students and Acceptance Rate. UCB will almost certainly benefit from a 20-point improvement in average SAT. U Michigan is one of the few highly ranked colleges that experienced an expansion of its Acceptance Rate (from 47% to 50%), but this will almost surely be offset by gains in Top 10% scorers and classes over 50.</li>
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<p>Important Note: Many of the most highly ranked colleges DO NOT provide a CDS so year-over-year comparisons are difficult and thus make it hard to predict overall ranking shifts up and down.</p>