Unranked schools

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I noticed on the new US News ranking there is a new tier in each category: unranked schools. The one that stands out to me is Sarah Lawrence, on the Liberal Arts Colleges section. It is a private, prestigious school that chose to forego the rankings game. US News, under recent pressure, has let them have it their way. </p>

<p>My question is if this is the beginning of the end for the relevance of USNWR? The day will come when a school of the caliber of say, Wesleyan, Grinnell or even Yale, opt out and thus, render the ranking moot. I see many more schools following Reed's and Sarah Lawrence's examples. A prediction: expect Reed and St. John's College on the unranked list next year.</p>

2

<p>It's kind of silly when you think about it: they go to all the trouble of assembling pretty good data and applying all of these different weights and added values to everything -- and then screw it all up with a popularity poll. It's like combining Consumer Reports with the Miss America Contest.</p>

3

<p>Gustavus Adolphus in MN also opted out of the US News system this year - they were traditionally ranked in the 70ish range of the Tier I LAC rankings.</p>