What is Tier 2???

[mikerees137]

I was searching for colleges and I’ve noticed that in quite a few of them they are ranked as “tier 2”. Can someone please explain to me what tier 2 means in college ranking?? Thanks you!

[TomSrOfBoston]

There is no official tiering. To some anything other than HYPSM is second tier.

[tk21769]

It means whatever the ranking service defines it to mean.
As I recall, US News used to use this term to refer to national universities outside the top 50 (but still assigned a numerical ranking).

Where are you seeing this term?
.

[merc81]

U.S. News currently lists fourth quartile schools in a given category as “Second Tier.”

[mikerees137]

Yes, U.S. News is where I saw it them ranking colleges as tier 2.

[tk21769]

U.S. News publishes the numerical ranks of approximately the top 75 percent of schools in each of the categories. The remaining schools are placed in the bottom, or second, tier based on their overall score in their category. Schools in the second tier are labeled as Rank Not Published and listed alphabetically on usnews.com.

The second tier, also referred to as Tier Two, is approximately the bottom 25 percent of schools in a given category. In other words, schools listed in Tier Two are ranked lower than all those that are numerically ranked.

U.S. News believes that the data are complete enough to numerically rank schools in the top 75 percent of each category, given the robust methodology.

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/rankings-faq

[Corbett]

Historically, US News ranked schools like this:

top 25% = Numerically ranked
next 25% = Tier 2 (unranked)
next 25% = Tier 3 (unranked)
next 25% = Tier 4 (unranked)

Then they combined Tiers 1 and 2, while leaving Tiers 3 and 4 unchanged, like this:

top 50% = Numerically ranked
next 25% = Tier 3 (unranked)
next 25% = Tier 4 (unranked)

Then they combined Tiers 1, 2, and 3, while renaming Tier 4 as “Tier 2”, like this:

top 75% = Numerically ranked
next 25% = Tier 2 (unranked)

So in the context of the US News ranking, “Tier 2” can mean a school that is top 25 to 50%, or it can mean a school that is ranked in the bottom 25%, or it can be undefined. It depends on the edition of the ranking.

If this seems confusing and inconsistent, it’s because it is.

[Corbett]

So in the context of the US News ranking, “Tier 2” can mean a school that is top 25 to 50%, or it can mean a school that is in the bottom 25%, or it can be undefined. It depends on the edition of the ranking.

For some reason, USNews still has the FAQ for the 2009 edition up on its website. So you can easily confirm that at that time, Tier 2 did not exist:

Why is tier two missing? … Why does U.S. News no longer publish a separate Tier 2? Tier 2 schools are now part of the top half each category of schools which are numbered ranked and therefore there is no longer a separate group called Tier 2. U.S. News wants to emphasize the top half of each category and felt it was no longer neccesary to have separate Tier 2.

https://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2009/08/19/frequently-asked-questions-rankings

[Corbett]

U.S. News believes that the data are complete enough to numerically rank schools in the top 75 percent of each category, given the robust methodology.

That’s what they say in the current ranking.

But in older editions, they only felt that the data were “robust” enough to justify numerical rankings for the top 25%, or for the top 50%.

[DadTwoGirls]

Given that there are thousands of universities and colleges in the US, “Top 25%” doesn’t actually mean much. It probably means top 25% of the schools that they bothered to rank. In fact, if there are 4,000 schools, top 25% should mean “top 1000”, which I strongly suspect is not the way that they are using it.

“It means whatever the ranking service defines it to mean.”

Exactly right. I think it is a term that is best ignored.

[TomSrOfBoston]

USNews did not originate the tire term, they just applied it in their own way.