Just for the fun of it, here’s my top ten prediction for the upcoming usnwr ranking.
- Harvard/Princeton
- Yale
- Chicago/Stanford/Columbia
- MIT/Penn/Duke
- Caltech
I’ve noticed how in almost every list provided here, everyone has jhu ranked lower than its current 2015 12th rank. I’d just like to say that ever since U.S. News started its new methodology of rankings back in 2008 (jhu was ranked 17th), we have either risen or remained steady in the rankings every year. We are currently 12th and it wouldn’t surprise me if we jumped into the top 10 in a few years.
Rankings dont matter. Reputations are stagnant and are established from decades or centuries of accomplishments.
Jhu regardless of rank will be held in high esteem…:). There is just too much other bias in here. The dukies here are hilarious.
The rankings wont change much. Notre Dame will probably rise a few notches. Colby will drop since its peer ranking will drop following the elimination of the supplemental essay from the application. It is the only top 20 LAC that does not require a supplement essay. This is an obvious tactic to increase applications. Bates will rise a few commensurate with a lower acceptance rate and higher test scores.
Right - like the secretary to whom the other college presidents handed the peer assessment survey to fill out - really knows about Colby eliminating a supplemental essay. The entire peer review ranking is a joke.
“I’ve noticed how in almost every list provided here, everyone has jhu ranked lower than its current 2015 12th rank. I’d just like to say that ever since U.S. News started its new methodology of rankings back in 2008 (jhu was ranked 17th), we have either risen or remained steady in the rankings every year. We are currently 12th and it wouldn’t surprise me if we jumped into the top 10 in a few years.”
But there’s no appreciable difference, osprey. JHU is a fine school regardless of whether it’s 12 or 10. Only unsophisticated high schoolers care to that micro extent.
My LAC rankings weren’t a prediction; they were my rankings. I don’t consider the academics at the service academies to be on par with the schools in my top 25. That’s why USMA and USNA are not in my rankings.
I consider it a great feat to get into one of those institutions, but their faculty strength and reputations are not at the level of those in my top 25… as far as I know. Academic strength is my #1 criterion.
In past years the rankings appear on line around 6 PM EDT on the night before the “release date”. So we should all know by this evening.
But does application number have anything to do with the quality of academics? Number of apps likely has more to do with prestige (which may be based partly on academic quality…), marketing efforts of the school, and trending vibe/popularity, than it has to do with academic quality.
So, among top-quality schools like those in your anecdote, I’d judge them based on the percentage who get into med school (among students who apply…), fit, finances, research opportunities, etc. Not application numbers.
Right - your point was that the other three are more popular than Reed among the rest of the general public, basing that on application numbers. You are right - no better way to show popularity among prospective students than app numbers.
I had wondered if you were also implying that app number means quality per se; thanks for ending the speculation. (it feels like Monday morning…)
Sneak peek at the USNWR Top 25 National Universities (in alphabetical order):
Brown University (RI)
California Institute of Technology
Carnegie Mellon University ¶
Columbia University (NY)
Cornell University (NY)
Dartmouth College (NH)
Duke University (NC)
Emory University (GA)
Georgetown University (DC)
Harvard University (MA)
Johns Hopkins University (MD)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Northwestern University (IL)
Princeton University (NJ)
Rice University (TX)
Stanford University (CA)
University of California—Berkeley
University of California—Los Angeles
University of Chicago
University of Notre Dame (IN)
University of Pennsylvania
University of Southern California
Vanderbilt University (TN)
Washington University in St. Louis
Yale University (CT)
It looks to me like University of Virginia got pushed out of the Top 25. It’s the only one from last year’s list (when there were 26 schools due to ties) that doesn’t appear in this year’s list.
Per your cite and College Factual, these are the top 25 universities:
- Yale
- Penn
- Duke
- Stanford
- Harvard
- Princeton
- Brown
- MIT
- Norte Dame
- Dartmouth
- Northwestern
- Cal Tech
- Cornell
- Vanderbilt
- WUSL
- USC
- Rice
- Carnegie Mellon
- Columbia
- Tufts
- Emory
- Chicago
- Georgetown
- Johns Hopkins
- UCLA
My only major beef with this USA Today ranking is how Columbia is at #19. Hard for me to imagine how that happened. To be clear, I am not a Columbia homer or affiliated with Columbia in any way.
Yeah, if Columbia isn’t somewhere in the top ten among universities for undergraduate education, my name is Margaret. Columbia offers a great undergraduate education.
Schools being ranked very obviously too high or too low lowers the value of any ranking (and its formula…) – makes that ranking look ridiculous.
- Vassar
- Harvey Mudd
- Amherst
- Holy Cross
- Bucknell
- Pomona
- Washington and Lee
- Olin
- Wesleyan
- Middlebury
- Swarthmore
- Wake Forest
- CMC
- Colgate
- Kenyon
- Bates
- Lehigh
- Colby
- Williams
- Union NY
- Lafayette
- Grinnell
- Davidson
- College of William and Mary
- Dickinson
Why does that list only list universities? Never mind, I see they do have LACs but not in their top 10. Strange given their stated methodology of “Freshman retention rates, the number of full-time teachers and student loan default rates” unless number of full time teachers is total, not per student.
Wake Forest and Lehigh are not LACs. Wake has a medical school, law school and MBA program. William & Mary is not either.
Re: 170
Wellesley, Haverford, and Carleton (among other notable exceptions)… are not among the top 25 LACs?
@OHMomof2 I think that the the full-time teacher metric is as a percentage of the total.
Chicago may be a bit low, but for undergraduate rankings there are reasons why they could fall. If this included graduate schools, they would definitely be higher. I think of their undergraduate college as more of an LAC. They are a lot like Swarthmore, as has been mentioned by other posters. I can’t imagine why Columbia could fall so far.
I don’t think that odd rankings have to invalidate their ranking. USNews has lots of odd rankings because some schools game them and no one thinks it invalidates their opinion.