<p>I think it’s pretty clear that USNWR makes a lot of errors in its reporting. The initial finance rankings were terribly inaccurate. How could such a huge and obvious mistake occur and then be published? This is just another example of how reporting in the media has declined in this country. </p>
<p>Oh you’re just bummed Berkeley cracked the top 20 and Michigan didn’t. </p>
<p>Michigan hasn’t cracked the top 20 in over thirty years, so that has nothing to do with my remarks. </p>
<p>SLU cracked the top 100!</p>
<p>I agree with Rjk. How can USNews mess that up? “Oh, we entered the scores wrong”. Doesn’t generate confidence.
Que a xiggi smile… </p>
<p>@lbad96 nothing, I’m just telling you that UMass Amherst is overrated :)</p>
<p>I don’t pay these rankings much mind…but I am hoping that the decline of Holy Cross to #34 means par72 will stop spamming every thread with “might consider HC–top25 LAC with great alumni network an hour from Boston.”</p>
<p>@pierre0913 um, no it’s not. Quite the opposite when you look at the other schools in that state. Lol</p>
<p>I find the speciality rankings more interesting because they’re based entirely on peer reputation. Does anyone know where we can access those for the past few years? I know colleges “accidentally” publish those all the time but I’m wondering if there’s an easier source to check out. I just want to see how the scene has looked in undergrad Engineering over the years, partly because Stanford climbed past CMU this year for Computer Engineering and I want to see how the Big Four have looked over time.</p>
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<p><a href=“http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/us-news-college-ranking-trends/1292/”>http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/us-news-college-ranking-trends/1292/</a></p>
<p>it’s related to this article:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-news-college-rankings-amid-predictability-some-major-shifts/2014/09/08/a2e17efc-3774-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-news-college-rankings-amid-predictability-some-major-shifts/2014/09/08/a2e17efc-3774-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html</a></p>
<p>It’s interesting to view the trend over the last 5 years.<<<</p>
<p>Just as it is painful to read the comments appended to that article. </p>
<p>I almost had a heart attack this morning when I saw Michigan at #1 for undergrad finance (over Penn), and NYU not even in the top 10 anymore. I thought I was going crazy.</p>
<p>Luckily, they made an error and recalculated the rankings and all is good in the world.</p>
<p>Re: <a href=“http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/us-news-college-ranking-trends/1292/”>http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/local/us-news-college-ranking-trends/1292/</a></p>
<p>Most of the rankings are fairly stable (probably USNWR’s intention), but there are some big gainers and losers over the past five years:</p>
<p>“National universities”
+34 San Diego State
+27 Northeastern
+27 Cincinnati
+23 TCU
+23 UMass - Amherst
+17 SUNY - Buffalo
+17 SUNY - Albany
+16 NCSU
+14 Boston University
+13 BYU - Provo
-13 UC Santa Cruz
-13 Saint Louis University
-13 Oklahoma State
-16 Colorado School of Mines
-17 UoPacific
-18 Auburn
-19 UC Riverside
-27 Washington State
-41 Howard</p>
<p>“National liberal arts colleges”
+110 Saint John’s College (MD)
+98 Saint John’s College (NM)
+33 Bennington
+32 College of the Atlantic
+25 Roanoke
+25 Wesleyan
+19 Hillsdale
+18 Oglethorpe
+18 Salem
+15 Gustavus Adolphus
-15 Mount Holyoke
-15 Wofford
-15 Sweet Briar
-15 Lake Forest
-17 Augustana
-19 Coe
-19 Linfield
-19 Randolph
-20 Drew
-22 Spelman
-23 Reed
-24 Cornell College
-24 Juniata
-25 Southwestern
-25 Wittenberg
-31 Birmingham Southern</p>
<p>“Gaming” or “anti-gaming”?</p>
<p>"I almost had a heart attack this morning when I saw Michigan at #1 for undergrad finance (over Penn), and NYU not even in the top 10 anymore. I thought I was going crazy.</p>
<p>Luckily, they made an error and recalculated the rankings and all is good in the world."</p>
<p>I little dramatic don’t you think? I’m sure USNWR makes lots of errors. That so many trust their opinion as the gospel is what I find amazing.</p>
<p>“I almost had a heart attack this morning when I saw Michigan at #1 for undergrad finance (over Penn), and NYU not even in the top 10 anymore. I thought I was going crazy.”</p>
<p>Exactly. This is the reason US News has gotten so much attention. Not because people are trying to figure out which schools are good or not but because people want some validation as to why their school is really the best and the US News rankings give that (or don’t give that). People really need to step away from their panic button if their school goes up or down a few spots (pretty sure the people at Hampshire College really don’t care now haha)</p>
<p>I love this:
Let’s send out some surveys, calculate some averages and charge people for someone else’s opinion… Glad there’s so much rigor behind that.</p>
<p>You do realize that peer reputation is a bit more than just “Someone else’s opinion”, right? They’re not asking Joe the Plumber from Middle America what his thoughts are on Wharton vs. Stern. </p>
<p>Rankings by their very existence are a subjective opinion, albeit based on objective data points that are weighted based on subjective decisions. </p>
<p>That big gain for St. John’s came apparently because they relented and began providing basic information to U.S. News again after declining for several years. A spokesman for St. John’s openly scoffed at the change in rating.</p>
<p>“Rankings by their very existence are a subjective opinion, albeit based on objective data points that are weighted based on subjective decisions.”</p>
<p>The problem is, who is policing the so called objective data that universities are sending into US News? </p>
<p>Hey, USNWR doesn’t get any money from me for their malarkey. Haven’t purchased a copy of their magazine or college guide since the Bush Administration.</p>
<p>Which Bush administration?</p>