<ol>
<li><p>Harvard University (3) Dr. Faust sets things aright and Harvard again assumes the No. 1 spot in the survey.</p></li>
<li><p>Northwestern University (31) Catapults to No.2 while leading the Big Ten charge up the rankings.</p></li>
<li><p>University of California, Berkeley (8) Cal considers itself THE University of California and the rankings back this up.</p></li>
<li><p>Columbia University (5) Columbia has never finished out of the Top 10 in the TrendTopper rankings.</p></li>
<li><p>California Institute of Technology (19) CalTech nips its East Coast competitor for top tech honors.</p></li>
<li><p>Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4) The former Boston Tech rejected Harvards repeated entreaties to merge in the late 19th century.</p></li>
<li><p>Stanford University (11) The former Harvard of the West has long emerged from Cantabrigias fabled shadow.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Chicago (2) Dropped out of the Big Ten in the late 1930s; loss of big-time football doesnt seem to have hurt their rankings.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Texas, Austin (10) It new branding, What starts here, changes the world is more than a slogan.</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell University (7) Few know that the Ivy titan is also a Land Grant institution.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (6) Took top honors twice in previous surveys.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Washington (17) U Dub, as it is affectionately known, is the emerging powerhouse of the Northwest.</p></li>
<li><p>Pennsylvania State University (24) Penn States new identity campaign has evidently been quite successful.</p></li>
<li><p>Yale University (9) Vassar declined an invitation to merge with Yale in 1966.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Wisconsin, Madison (1) Had a very strong global media run during the previous cycle.</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton University (12) The First Ladys Alma Mater was originally known as the College of New Jersey.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Pennsylvania (22) The Wharton School greatly strengthens Penns brand equity.</p></li>
<li><p>University of California, Los Angeles (16) Tops in LaLa Land, though USC is making great strides forward.</p></li>
<li><p>University of California, Davis (13) Originally established as the agricultural extension of UC Berkeley known as the University Farm.</p></li>
<li><p>Georgia Institute of Technology (27) The Yellow Jackets ramble into the Top 20.</p></li>
<li><p>Georgetown University (14) Once again, the Top Catholic University in the land.</p></li>
<li><p>New York University (18) Growing global ambitions reflected in the global media.</p></li>
<li><p>Indiana University, Bloomington (46) Steadily gaining in prestige and the rankings reflect it.</p></li>
<li><p>Boston College (39) A generation ago, the Flutie Effect launched the school on its present stellar trajectory.</p></li>
<li><p>University of California, San Diego (23) UCSD receives about a billion dollars a year in research grants.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Williams College The Ephs (or is it Blue Cows?) set the standard, once again, however a first in Internet MediaBuzz…</p></li>
<li><p>University of Richmond Richmond looking stronger and stronger in the classroom, the athletic field and the media.</p></li>
<li><p>Union College A sometimes overlooked gem of a school making strides in the Internet age.</p></li>
<li><p>Claremont McKenna College CMC marks the beginning of the Claremont Colleges surge.</p></li>
<li><p>Harvey Mudd College One of the top technical schools in the nation finally getting it due.</p></li>
<li><p>Pomona College Perhaps the most akin to Williams on the list (minus the SoCal climate and beaches).</p></li>
<li><p>Wesleyan University Firmly wedged between Williams and Amherst, as is its usual fate.</p></li>
<li><p>The Juilliard School A school that truly deserves to be in the nations Top Ten, though it is often relegated to Unranked or Other categories.</p></li>
<li><p>Carleton College A past No.1 that continues to gain in global reputation.</p></li>
<li><p>Bates College With Colby and Bowdoin, one of the three little Ivies from the state of Maine.</p></li>
<li><p>Pratt Institute Pratts mission is to educate artists and creative professionals and, indeed, that is what it does.</p></li>
<li><p>Amherst College Always lurking near the top of the Liberal Arts College rankings.</p></li>
<li><p>Wellesley College The only Womans College to achieve No. 1 in any comprehensive national rankings.</p></li>
<li><p>Bryn Mawr College Katy Hepburn would be proud of how the little school has come of age (125th anniversary).</p></li>
<li><p>Middlebury College Such a large global footprint for such a small school.</p></li>
<li><p>Bowdoin College Used to boast of being the first US college to witness the sunrise.</p></li>
<li><p>Smith College The womens school of the Five Colleges Consortium around Amherst, Massachusetts.</p></li>
<li><p>Scripps College Yet another of the Claremont Colleges to emerge into the top ranks.</p></li>
<li><p>Bucknell University Bucknell is the largest private Liberal Arts college in the nation and its outsized reputation is beginning to reflect this fact.</p></li>
<li><p>Oberlin College From the Arb to the Arch the college holds many firsts in American academic history, such as the first co-ed college to graduate a woman.</p></li>
<li><p>Colorado College CC, of Block Plan fame, was the first No. 1 west of the Mississippi.</p></li>
<li><p>School of the Art Institute of Chicago SAIC deserves to be in the top reaches of any serious collegiate ranking.</p></li>
<li><p>Babson College Specialized in entrepreneurship before entrepreneurship was cool.</p></li>
<li><p>United States Military Academy Army and Navy were considered part of the traditional Ivy League a century before the Ivy Group sports conference was formed.</p></li>
<li><p>United States Air Force Academy Service Academies are amazingly unranked by US News and others</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Considering there are thousands of colleges and universities in the USA, it’s interesting how closely these lists mirror the USNWR rankings. I would have expected very large schools with big sports programs to dominate. Yet a very small school like Caltech generates more media buzz than, say, Ohio State. And I’m surprised Duke isn’t in the top 25. I guess the lacrosse scandal isn’t generating so much buzz anymore.</p>
<p>The tracking company apparently also sells some product/service to “manage” a school’s ranking (surprise!) Not sure exactly how that works. I tried in vain to find a link referring to the tracking methodology.</p>