<p>That was good for Caltech. They’re also been ranked as the best university in the world several times by the THE. So they’re one of a handful of universities that have been ranked above Harvard in multiple rankings, which is impressive. (Princeton and Stanford have also been ranked above Harvard in multiple rankings.)</p>
<p>The Ivy League is an NCAA intercollegiate sports conference. It has some very good schools, but there are plenty of other very good schools that aren’t in that particular sports conference. </p>
<p>You can mostly ignore the magazine rankings. Using your example, I seriously doubt there was any significant change at Penn or Columbia between 2010 and 2011, or any objective basis at all to say that one was “better” than the other (overall, not just a better fit for a particular student). But saying, “the colleges are really all pretty much the same as they were last year, and the year before that, and the year before that,” wouldn’t bring in very many eyes/views for their advertisers, so their business model does not allow them to say that.</p>
<p>In our house, we are now finalizing our list of colleges to apply to. We are unlikely to look at any magazine rankings this fall, and we are very unlikely to be influenced by them at all at this point even if we did see them. We’re not even at the look-into-colleges-we-hadn’t-thought-about stage anymore.</p>
<p>So while it might be nice for my alma mater (I won’t say which one it is) to take the league football or basketball title, that will have zero influence on my child’s choice of colleges.</p>
When you consider their methodological criteria, these rankings are pretty irrelevant to most prospective undergraduates.
1. Undergraduate academic reputation, 22.5 per cent
2. Graduation and freshman retention rates, 20 per cent
3. Faculty resources, 20 per cent
4. Student selectivity, 15 per cent
5. Financial resources, 10 per cent
6. Graduation rate performance, 7.5 per cent
7. Alumni giving, 5 per cent
Left out are criteria such as quality of undergraduate teaching and student satisfaction with the school which are only distantly proxied by the above. Some of these criteria are circular (the greater the rep, the greater the rep, selectivity attracts more applicants which drives selectivity, etc.) This article is a few years old but nicely deconstructs and critiques the USNWR game which exists solely to move product every year.</p>
<p>The “Alumni giving” factor also givet the old-money private schools a boost to maintain their “expected” position. It’s also why my school pounces on seniors to give as they’re graduating. (And so many other schools as well. Yes, they’re also trying to establish a habit of giving, but it’s still ridiculous.)</p>
<p>As I mentioned in my first post, starting from 1993 till now, HYP always occupy top 3 except for year 2000, a one-year wonder for Caltech which took number 1 spot that year.</p>
<p>During these periods, only a few institutes ranked well with ivies, they are namely, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and Duke; and they never dropped out of top 10. </p>
<p>Still, during these years, Stanford never ranked lower number 6 and MIT never dropped below number 7. </p>
<p>Caltech’s best rank was number 1 in 2000 and Duke’s best rank was number 3 in 1998.</p>
<p>Another university worth mentioning is Chicago, which made a big leap to reside at number 5 for 2012 and 2013. </p>
<p>I don’t know why this tread is moved from where it originally started.</p>
<p>2005 USNews ranking will be released a week from now on 09-09-2014. My prediction is as follows：</p>
<p>(1) Princeton and Harvard will resume their “tie” tradition at the top </p>
<p>(2) Yale will be at number 3 and Columbia at number to continue ivies’ domination at the top 4. </p>
<p>(3) During past two decades, Stanford never ranked lower number 6 and MIT never dropped below number 7. Chicago made a big leap to reside at number 5 for 2012 and 2013. Stanford, MIT, and Chicago will form a 4-way tie at number 4 with Columbia.</p>
<p>(4) Caltech and Duke, never dropped out of top 10 during the past two decades will continue their glory to tie with Penn at number 8.</p>
<p>(5) That no public university would be ranked in top 20 was held true for a decade except for last year Berkeley’s 3-way tie at number 20. This year Berkeley will return back to their familiar spot at number 21. </p>
<p>(6) For the past three decades, UVA never dropped out of Top 25 and this year there will be no exception. They will assume their usual tie with old companions UCLA and USC (many ties among three schools during the past 5 years), and a newly found companion CMU (Starting to join the tie with these three schools last year) to continue the trend at top 25</p>
<p>1 Harvard
1 Princeton
3 Yale
4 Stanford
4 Columbia
4 MIT
4 Chicago
8 Penn
8 Caltech
8 Duke
11 Dartmouth
11 Northwestern
11 Washington
14 John Hopkins
14 Brown
14 Cornell
17 Vanderbilt
17 Rice
19 Notre Dame
19 Emory
21 Berkeley
21 Georgetown
23 UVA
23 CMU
23 UCLA
23 USC</p>
<p>Today, USNews publish their preview list of best undergraduate business programs but not in ranking order. It will be an easy prediction that the following institutes will be ranked among top 10 this year (not in ranking order). </p>
<p>Harvard
Princeton
Yale
Stanford
Columbia
MIT
Chicago
Penn
Caltech
Duke</p>
<p>Dartmouth</p>
<p>During the past two decades, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, MIT, Penn, Caltech, and Duke were untouchable highly ranked; none of these institutes fell out of top 10. Then, added in is the red hot Chicago, which ranked at number 5 for two consecutive years since 2013 and these 10 institutes will on my top 10 list. If a tie at 10 is avoidable, then the one to add is Dartmouth, the most frequent visitor at top 10 (even more frequent than Chicago) beside the aforementioned 9 institutes. </p>
<p>If a tie at 10 is inevitable, then the one to include should be Dartmouth, who was the most frequent visitor at top 10 (even more frequent than Chicago) beside the aforementioned 9 institutes.</p>