<p>^Northwestern has been in the top-15 since 94 and only two years behind Penn. I wouldn’t call it “newcomer”.</p>
<p>@al6200 pm me an email address to send the excel file to if you’d like it</p>
<p>
Penn has consistently been ranked among the top 7 since 1997–that covers several business cycles and ups-and-downs in the economy. While Wharton is certainly a large part of Penn’s undergraduate appeal, there’s much more to it than that. Penn’s liberal arts departments compare quite favorably to those of other schools in the top 5-10 range (Columbia, Duke, etc.), and the Penn campus, neighborhood, and general undergraduate experience have had major makeovers since the early 1990s.</p>
<p>Thank you for the graph! It’s super informative!</p>
<p>
Earliest USNWR methodology was 100% peer assessment. Using the same methodology today, Berkeley is #6. “Fall” was entirely due to change in ranking methodology.</p>
<p>“Was talking to a professor in his early 30s about a position I was going to apply for and he asked me where my undergrad was placed on the USNEWs, which would give him an idea of gauging my chances. Makes sense since he went to undergrad during the USNEWS era.”</p>
<p>Sefago, if that were the case, you would already have seen a steady and significant change in the peer assessment score. However, in 20 years, peer assessment scores have not changed at all. If you were to rank universities according to PA, today’s ranking would not be too different from the 1985 ranking. This tells me that regardless of age, most academics do not rely too heavily on the USNWR rankings. I would go as far as to say that most professors will judge universities by how strong they are in their given field. For example, a Physics professor would probably think that Caltech, MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Cal, Cornell, Chicago and UIUC are the top universities, while an English professor would probably say that Cal, Stanford, Yale, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Cornell, Princeton and Chicago are best. Professors will typically have a miopic view of universites. Those that may have broader vision are professors involved in administrative roles such as deans of colleges, university presidents and provosts.</p>
<p>seems like ND and Emory are off the plot</p>