<p>Since so many people refer to these rankings (and I was bored) I averaged the rank of the top 50 unis and LACs since USNews first started their ranking in the early 80s and came out with an overall average ranking. For all of the moving around that schools do within these rankings, surprisngly little has changed since the beginning.</p>
<p>When a University is the best University, the best students want to go there and the most money gets sent there. Crazy outside events need to occur to propel a new university to the top.</p>
<p>Since 17 is the average (and Wash U has consistently been in the top15 in the last few years) i guess that school has moved up a lot in the past 20 odd years</p>
<p>That's probably true, jbruner. It seems to me that college admissions has gotten consistently more competitive all across the chart, so with that in mind, it makes sense that the rankings haven't changed, because the schools are still the same amount of competitive in relation to each other. </p>
<p>There are a few schools that are a few spots different, however. The one that stands out to me is Smith, which is currently ranked 7 spots below it's average ranking. Looking at my handy copy of USNWR, it seems like it takes a big hit in selectivity, which was discussed on the "Which schools have a WORSE reputation now than 15+ years ago." Bryn Mawr is currently 5 spots below it's average, so it seems like the women's colleges really have taken a hit. Except for Wellesley, of course...right at the same spot that it is now, #4 :).</p>
<p>Bwah! So funny, but so mean...the "d" is right next to the "s" on the keyboard, afterall. </p>
<p>It could be worse. You could be me, and have had your name misspelled in your graduation program. Luckily it wasn't under the roll call, it was under the NMF recognition, but still. I know that the other name is as common as mine, and is only one letter different, but still. Ouch.</p>
<p>There was just an article about this in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Their conclusion was (and it's borne out by the data) that the LAC list has not changed very much, but there have been some fairly dramatic changes in the university rankings, mainly the drop of publics like Berkeley, Mich, and UNC, all of which were in the top 10 back in the 80s.</p>
<p>MarathonMan - that's actually the data I used. </p>
<p>It's strange that women's colleges were ranked so highly in the beginning but then all (except Wellesley) took a hit due to a change in criteria. Really should make us realize how great all of the 7 sisters were/are.</p>
<p>Re WashU: People talk about it like it's only recently been considered good, but even in 88 it was in the top 25 and has never been a "regional school" as people claim, at least during the time of the rankings.</p>
<p>haha I just noticed that typo on UC Davis. Well, I was tired.</p>
<p>brand_182, I think your final ranking is the truest I have seen. Probably the most reliable ranking for overall quality. Well worth the time. Thanks again.</p>
<p>sheed and reject-
Get a life. Who hired you as the CC time police? Losers.</p>
<p>brand182,
Somewhere on CC a link to an article was posted that discussed the history of the USNWR survey and how its methodology evolved. It was pretty clear from the article that the data and the methodology changed radically in 1991 and has stayed relatively constant since that time. For the top 30 schools, I had done an analysis similar to yours for the years 1991-2007 and the results aren't much different from the list you posted above. The only major change was that UC Berkeley came in at #21 (vs #18 in your list) if you begin with the 1991 data. As I recall, the pre-1991 data relied very heavily on Peer Assessment scoring and the heavy research schools, including some state universities that today don't rank very highly (eg, U Illinois), did very well.</p>
<p>Here is that link that I referred to earlier. This is a paper titled "College and University Ranking Systems" that was published in April, 2007 by the Institute for Higher Education (IHEP). I personally found it very interesting reading and, after reading the article, I actually felt better about what USNWR is doing and how they are doing it. </p>