USNews Best Colleges 2013 - Stop speculating!

<p>Xiggi, thanks for the info! I’m also interested in seeing the PA/Counselor scores for UVA, Berkeley, Michigan, UNC, UCLA, and W&M if you would be so willing to oblige. Thanks in advance!!</p>

<p>Anyone have a link that documents the changes in place of colleges the past couple years in the US News rankings? I don’t want to take a couple hours making a chart since I am pretty sure someone on the internet has already found one - I just came up with nothing on a google search. Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>I was right that there would not be much changes in the top ten but ties. The ranking is really a non-event unlike two years ago when Columbia bolted to number 4.</p>

<p>I just went to the US news website, Xiggi and what you reported in the top 20 seems different from what’s on their site now: There’s a five way tie for number five among, Chicago, Stanford, Caltech, MIT and Penn. I am reading incorrectly or do you need to re-post your ranking? Chicago is not tied for number 4 with Columbia as you reported unless they have only updated the paid section of the ranking and not the free one, but I clicked on the 2013 ranking icon.</p>

<p>Could it be true that you get what you pay (or paid) for? I assume that a ranking that includes the admit rate for the Fall of 2011 is the latest and correct one. </p>

<p>What can I say?</p>

<p>@ivyleaguer That is last year’s ranking. The most recent ranking is what was listed. Also, the new rankings use 2011 acceptance rates.</p>

<p>UChicago has shown remarkable consistency this year, ranking fourth (amongst US schools) in the 2012 QS World Univ. rankings, Forbes and US News.</p>

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<p>Well many people on this board will consider Stanford of the same calibre forming HYPS, which is why folks are somewhat surprised that Chicago and Columbia have moved past it.</p>

<p>What in the world happened to Caltech? I understand every ranking has it’s own criteria, no need to beat the dead horse on that type of explanation, but I have an extremely hard time believing that a university that was ranked #1 (Times Rankings) university on earth really lost a 5 way tie for 5th place and ended up on the 10th place slot of this year’s list. I really doubt Caltech people care either way as they are probably busy discovering some way to colonize Mars, but still…</p>

<p>Also, is the number of colleges in the top 25 any different than last year? I remember last year there being 28 (3 way tie for 25th) in the top 25 or am I mistaken?</p>

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<p>Could you please post the PA and HS counselor rankings as well ?</p>

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<p>I don’t know why Caltech dropped 5 places, but I’m sure the USN&WR obsessed watchers on this board will be able to explain. Generally speaking though, Caltech is hurt by its graduation rate, which is only about 75 % or so if I recall it correctly. USN&WR unfortunately overweights that measure introducing a bias against tech-oriented and grade deflation schools.</p>

<p>bruno: Caltech’s graduation rate is 87%, according to US News. Chicago’s is also low at 92%, but Chicago managed 4th. </p>

<p>I think Caltech dropped simply because it was stagnant. Lots of schools had significant increases somewhere, and in some measures, all top 10 schools had significant increases like faculty pay. But Caltech has had virtually no change in this aspect for some time, for whatever reason, and that’s going to really start to hurt it, both in rankings and in faculty quality in general.</p>

<p>I’ve always had great respect for Caltech, so I’m sorry to see it at 10. It undoubtedly deserves higher.</p>

<p>^ At least its name keeps it on the first page, unlike poor Dartmouth.</p>

<p>Also, I don’t see how Chicago managed to squeeze out a 4th place ranking. Not a knock against the school, but its PA scores are among the lowest in the top 10, and so is its 6-year graduation rate. And although I know they barely count, it’s also notably the only top 7 school with a double digit acceptance rate. Anyone with full access want to do a more comprehensive analysis?</p>

<p>I noticed as well that the vast majority of schools are now listing a 43,000+ tuition. Does that seem like a huge jump from last year to anyone else? I could have sworn that most schools were hovering in the 40k range. And Columbia is practically $10,000 more expensive per year than Princeton.</p>

<p>“I’ve always had great respect for Caltech, so I’m sorry to see it at 10. It undoubtedly deserves higher.”</p>

<p>I completely agree with you phuriku.
Cal Tech is the one school I respect the most.</p>

<p>^^ For one, U Chicago professors are now the third highest paid out of any institution in the US, and the stats of admitted and enrolled students have made the biggest improvements out of any university in the top 10. So, even if all other factors more or less stayed equal, then it made sense for U Chicago to have gone up. Of course, whether we deserve to be there is another thing, with the whole CDS issue (maybe phuriku can shed some light on this) and the fact that we apparently now joined Columbia in displacing MIT and Stanford going against the holy HYPSM group. BTW, I actually sort of agree with the whole PA issue, I too don’t feel completely comfortable with Chicago being at #4 in this ranking if its PA score is .3 points below number 6.</p>

<p>UChicago’s freshman retention rate is now 99%, higher than what U.S. News shows (98%), since there is a lag and they average a few years. The same thing with UChicago’s graduation rate. It has been climbing about .8 every year for the past twenty years. By the time the current freshman class graduates, the graduation rate will be 95% or higher, but it takes time for it to show up in the stats.</p>

<p>USNEWS rankings archive: 1983~2007</p>

<p>[U.S&lt;/a&gt;. News Rankings Through the Years](<a href=“http://web.archive.org/web/20070908142457/http://chronicle.com/stats/usnews/]U.S”>http://web.archive.org/web/20070908142457/http://chronicle.com/stats/usnews/)</p>

<p>I haven’t seen the ranking but I suspect Stanford’s selectivity rank is lower than what people would expect and that hurts them the most. Stanford’s mid-50% SAT range and top-tenth % are virtually the same as schools you’d think a notch below it. </p>

<p>Based on decision threads in the past few years, Stanford admission always seemed to be the most random. They could easily raise their numbers if they wanted to.</p>

<p>@Phuriku: according to this [table](<a href=“http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/highest-grad-rate/page+4”>http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/highest-grad-rate/page+4&lt;/a&gt;), Caltech’s 4-year graduation rate is 76 %. Stanford’s is 79 %.</p>

<p>^I think they use 6-year rate</p>