@ormdad I don’t think it’s reasonable for any school to jump 4 spots, when it’s already ranked so highly, but I agree that tufts should be ranked more highly.
I think you can get a pretty good ranking by taking the number of cc: threads a school has, and dividing by the number of undergrads. I would best you get a better answer than most of the ranking systems out there.
Re #'s 120 and 121, Tufts could easily move 2 points (from 72 to 74) and therefore 4 spots (from 27 to 23).
@Much2learn the problem with your methodology is that it’s circular. The reason the schools get so many threads is because they are high in the rankings, not because they are better schools. Too many high school seniors place too much importance on these rankings instead of looking for schools that actually fit them.
It’s all just a popularity contest. Who will win Miss America this year, and why does anyone care?
@merc81 weren’t you the one who said due to statistical significance a college won’t rise more than 3 spots
@guitar321: A school would be unlikely to rise 3 points, but could easily rise 3 spots. The distinction between points and spots, and how this relates to the shape of the distribution curve in general, is important to understand from a statistical perspective.
@guitar321 all I’m thinking here is that last year I think there were several ties in the 20-26 range and Tufts’ slight score increase could push it into one of these clusters. I think the scores for selectivity and reputation (based on lower acceptance rate) might push the score up a few points which in this group could be a tie for 23rd or 21st. Basically what merc81 said…
Although I just noticed that they don’t use the latest acceptance rate, so a bigger jump up in the rankings could come next year.
I think Tufts’ rank is pretty accurate. I’m just not sure how Wake got so high. 
If you took the two following metrics from CC for the Ivies and CC Top Universities
- The number of posts
- The engagement per post as measured by average reply per post
and ranked colleges by equally weighing those two criteria
here is what you would come up with
1 Cornell
2 Berkeley
3 Harvard
4 Penn
5 Yale
6 Princeton
7 Michigan
8 UCLA
9 Stanford
10 Chicago
11 MIT
12 Columbia
13 Brown
14 Dartmouth
15 Duke
16 Northwestern
17 Virginia
18 Vanderbilt
19 Rice
20 WashU
21 Notre Dame
22 Chapel Hill
23 CMU
24 Georgetown
25 Caltech
26 Emory
27 Johns Hopkins
Just having a little fun with the numbers 
NYU and USC would score high on that list but you left them out. As would Tulane and Northeastern.
Here is the detail, and I added a few more universities
First is the Overall rank. The second is the Post Rank and the third is the engagement rank
1 1 12 Cornell
2 2 31 Berkeley
3 6 4 Harvard
4 3 16 Penn
5 10 1 Yale
6 11 2 Princeton
7 4 17 Michigan
8 5 22 UCLA
9 12 7 Stanford
10 8 14 USC
11 16 3 Chicago
12 15 5 MIT
13 9 13 Columbia
14 13 10 Brown
15 14 29 UT Austin
16 32 6 Tulane
17 21 9 Dartmouth
18 17 24 Duke
19 18 19 Northwestern
20 19 23 Virginia
21 28 8 Vanderbilt
22 27 15 Rice
23 23 20 WashU
24 29 18 Notre Dame
25 22 26 Chapel Hill
26 24 25 CMU
27 20 30 Georgetown
28 33 11 Caltech
29 30 21 Northeastern
30 26 27 Emory
31 25 32 Johns Hopkins
32 31 28 Texas A&M
33 7 33 NYU
Top 10 by post among the Universities listed here
Cornell
Berkeley
Penn
Michigan
UCLA
Harvard
NYU
USC
Columbia
Yale
Top 10 by Engagement among the Universities listed here
Yale
Princeton
Chicago
Harvard
MIT
Tulane
Stanford
Vanderbilt
Dartmouth
Brown
The bottleneck is between 39 and the tie at 51. Only a few points separate a ton of schools.
That’s very true
No offense, but Tufts doesn’t need to be ranked higher. I’m glad you’re proud of your alma mater, but Tufts is not better than UCLA, UVA, Carnegie, etc. If anything Tufts is overrated (along with Boston College), Michigan and UNC should be ranked higher than Tufts IMO, both of which have top ranked programs, but US NEWS methodology doesn’t really help public universities.
Chapel Hill should be top 20 tbh, no way is WUSTL a better school.
In 12 hours we will know and this thread will explode!
(I find this thread hilarious. Why aren’t betting markets all over it? Oh yeah, no adult would really bet, and kids can’t bet :p)
Tufts can say goodbye to the Top 25 this year as well:
http://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/2016-09-12/2017-best-colleges-preview-top-25-national-universities
UVA rises to 25?
There has been barely a change in the names of the top 25 schools as rated by USnews since 2008. The same 25 or so schools keep showing up. USnews will need to make some major random/arbitrary changes to its methodology to make its ranking newsworthy again and to sell more college guides
One curious observation though is that despite numerous claims that Universities can game these rankings, very few universities have been able to game the rankings to break into the top 25. Maybe Universities can game the rankings if they are in the 50-100 range, where small changes can push you up quite a bit, but as you rise towards the top 25, it becomes harder and harder to make headway.
I liken those who dismiss the relevance of USNews rankings to climate change deniers. Like it or not, they are an important factor in college selection.