1 – Princeton
2 – MIT
3 – Harvard, Stanford, Yale
6 – UChicago
7 – Johns Hopkins, Penn
9 – Caltech
10 – Duke, Northwestern
12-- Dartmouth
13 – Brown, Vanderbilt
15 – Rice, WashU
17 – Cornell
18 – Columbia, Notre Dame
20-- Berkeley, UCLA
22-- Carnegie Mellon, Emory, Georgetown
25 --NYU, Michigan, USC, UVA
How did they rank Columbia this year? I thought they had opted out of the rankings?
I really shouldn’t be doing this to the extent that it promotes this nonsense. Anyways, here is the link:
From what I gather, it wasn’t Columbia’s choice. It looks like they went from 2 to 18…
Correct me, please, if I am wrong.
Do you have last years rankings or is there a place to see if schools moved up or down?
Heavens no! I just have been focusing on Columbia given the “issues”. I THINK they were 2 or 3 last year, but don’t know.
This is the best I can find. Do others have link to last year’s USNWR rankings?:
That being said, I am telling D23 to totally disregard all of this! Apply where she wants to, and go where she is happiest.
One can argue about the granular differences like #25 vs #20, or #105 vs #97, and that really isn’t the purpose of these rankings. That is just nit picking between individuals.
However, as the differential widens, it gets more difficult to argue say #97 vs #20 or #72 vs #20. Hard to go wrong attending any of these Top 20.
However, by overall score, the schools ranked 20th in the National Universities category place closer to the 62nd place schools than they do to the 1st place school.
Here’s the previous rankings from 2015-2022. Columbia was ranked #2 in the 2021-22 edition.
Here’s the history of Columbia’s ranking in the USNWR from 2000 to 2023:
#10 2000-2001
#9 2002
#10 2003
#11 2004
#9 2005-2008
#8 2009-2010
#4 2011-2016
#5 2017-2018
#3 2019-2021
#2 2022
#18 2023
Yikes!
I am sorry, but I can’t resist posting this great song about being number 18 on the record charts in re Columbia (except the trajectory is a bit different!):
But I thought Columbia said they weren’t submitted data at all this year, right? in that case shouldn’t it have been the case that they were unranked? How did the 18 come about? Did US News just make that processing based on what information they did have?
Columbia was ranked in the same way they’ve always ranked schools that don’t participate. They are far from the first to not cooperate.
21. How does U.S. News handle schools that refuse to respond to the U.S. News annual statistical survey, given that many of them are still included in the rankings?
Nonresponders are still included in the rankings if they are eligible to be ranked. For schools that were eligible to be ranked but did not fill out the U.S. News statistical survey in spring and early summer 2022, U.S. News footnoted them as such, and made extensive use of the statistical data those institutions were required to report to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics and the College Scorecard.
That includes such factors as SAT and ACT scores, number of faculty, six-year graduation rates, Pell Grant graduation rates, graduate indebtedness, faculty salaries, financial expenditures and first-year student retention rates.
Yes, can be how points are tabulated, but generally this is simiar to college football rankings where the 2021 year-end difference between the #1 Georgia Bulldogs and #20 NC State Wolfpack is greater than the difference between the #31 and #50 teams. As you go down a list, the real difference usually gets smaller.
Interesting article about their “rankings.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/09/12/us-news-college-rankings-2023/
They’ll likely end up back in the 8-10 range next year if they start sharing accurate CDS data, which seems about right for them. They certainly shouldn’t have been top 5.
18 is kind of ridiculous for Columbia. To me, they are perpetually tied for 6th with UChicago, Caltech, and maybe UPenn. There is no gaming of my rankings. hehe
I think all of this is kind of ridiculous. What is the difference between 1 and 4 or 6 and 12 or whatever? They are all good schools, but to give absolute values just makes the insanity perpetuate.
Wasn’t CalTech the number one school one year? And didn’t it drop several places the next?
Has USNWR ever disclosed how much cash they make from these rankings?
Not much.
If USNews wanted to make it more useful, they would provide filters so people could search by specific parts of the formula to look at what’s most important to them. They could charge a nominal fee (like $2) for that, and make a little side cash.
I routinely point out the silliness of the rankings using Cal Poly as an example. For engineering, USNWR ranks Aerospace, Civil, Computer, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. This year, CP ranks #2, #1, #1, #2 and #2 respectively, yet they rank #6 overall. 
I just signed up on the website and was confronted with a $40 bill to get more access to specific criteria. It looks like US News knows how to monetize. I am going to pass.
I am content with the list and CC’ers comments on it!