@guitar321 There’s nothing crazy about it. They already did that before (1996 and 1997).
@IWannaHelp Yeah but that was so long ago
@guitar321 Uh, way to make some of us feel old… '96 and '97 were both well after I graduated from college and that was only a few years ago… (cough, wink)
@Creekland - us news ranked 1506 schools last year broken out into:
- National Universities 280
- Liberal Arts Colleges 245
- Regional Universities (N, S, W, MW) 618
- Regional Colleges (N, S, W, MW) 363
U.S. News collapses 12 of the Carnegie categories from the Basic Classification into four main groupings: National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities and Regional Colleges.
^^^ So maybe one should be wary of the 1000 schools US News doesn’t feel are worthy of ranking? I wonder how they decide who is or isn’t worthy when it comes close to the bottom of their rankings.
There are many specialized colleges: music, art, communications etc. Also there are bible colleges etc. that may not fit a category.
This Malcolm Gladwell chestnut from 2011 about the US News rankings is worth re-reading: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/02/14/the-order-of-things
Here’s another voice just heard from. Business Insider’s top 25 private colleges:
- Princeton
- Harvard
- Yale
- Stanford
- Vanderbilt
- MIT
- Penn
- Rice
- Columbia 10 Georgetown 11 Notre Dame 12 Cornell 13 Duke 14 Washington U. in STL 15 Colgate 16 Brown 17 Bowdoin 18 Washington and Lee 19 U.of Chicago 20 USC 21 Northwestern 22 Emory 23 Tufts 24
24 Claremont McKenna
25 Dartmouth
@bb3nyc Do they rank public schools? Also, I don’t entirely agree with that list
^^^ How much experience do you have with each of these colleges (and others)?
That’s a huge part of why overall rankings are so useless. Many giving their opinions for those polls have very little IRL experience with (all of) them overall, though they might know about parts of some of them. Most of what they “know” comes from hearsay or perceived reputation, not actual boots on the ground knowledge.
Employers tend to see actual graduates (within their field), so while an engineer might not know about the Psychology department (or care), they are better trusted advisers within their field IME.
Even then, their knowledge usually only includes a couple of handfuls of schools, so it’s good to ask advice from more than one person.
I’d trust the thoughts of multiple employers within a field far more than I would trust any money making list.
Then again, most employers know there are usually more than 25 good schools for a field… but that’s a different thought.
Yes, Most of these kinds of lists are pretty useless but it is still fun to see one of my kid’s schools as number 1 on this public college list. 
It’s just interesting , in general, to see the various lists .
@guitar321 , Here is the list for public colleges: http://www.businessinsider.com/best-public-colleges-in-the-united-states-2016-8 You can also find the top 50 list overall there (includes both publics and privates).
I looked at the business insider list and it is terrible. Caltech #41?
I don’t know if they rank publics. Vanderbilt and Rice seem a litt
V and R seem a bit too high and Chicago too low. But I think it’s a decent list.
Don’t know why I couldn’t get it all in.
@GnimInTx it’s weird that that website calls Georgia Tech “elite” but not Berkeley, Michigan, UVA, or UCLA
As a Northeastern alumnus I like the University Benchmarks ranking:
Northeastern 39 Elite!
Boston College 48 Merely Excellent
Boston University 54 Merely Excellent
It makes perfect sense to me LOL!
We like the ranking that puts our school highest and all the others are irrelevant and a waste of time.
Makes no sense. hahahahaha
@guitar321 - It’s a weird site on many levels.
Looks like 3 colleges moved from #11 to #10 for public school rankings (UI, UW Madison, UC Irvine)