<p>i was looking at the usnews national ranking for universities and don't get how to distinguish between tier 1 and tier 2 schools. r tier 1 school the top 50 schools or the top 50% of schools listed (there are about 120-130 listed)?? </p>
<p>could anyone help?</p>
<p>A few years ago USNews had Tier 1 as the first 50, and then the next 50-70 or so as Tier 2. That system is now defunct, and Tier 1 and 2 are lumped together and there is no explicit Tier 2...although many people still use the original definition. (Actually, many here in cc-land call Tier 1 as the top 10 or so....but that is whole 'nother can o' worms)</p>
<p>so should i just go with the top 50 as tier 1 schools?? b/c a couple of schools in the "tier 2" area look like tier 1 schools...</p>
<p>bbummmpp b/c i wanna no too</p>
<p>it doesn';t really matter what 'tier' you go with...find the best school for you</p>
<p>There is no "official" Tier 2 because USN&WR doesn't have one.</p>
<p>I know what <em>I</em> think of as Tier 2 or 3 in my internal ranking system :), but by bitter experience I have learned not to tell anyone. Most people take it as an insult, because they are thinking of the USN&WR rankings.</p>