<p>Here on CC you read a lot about kids that are applying to Tier 1, 2 or 3 schools. But is there a general consensus on which schools fall into these various tiers? Is it based on USNWR rankings? I did read a comment that said schools ranked from 100 to 150 in USNWR are considered third tier, but that's that only thing I recall seeing that hinted at any sort of methodology for this.</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>USNWR rankings are sorted into tiers, so a lot of people tend to be thinking of these when they’re discussing tier 1, 2, etc. However, USNWR tiers I think are just Tier 1, Tier 2, and unranked, so when you get down to Tier 3 and 4, that’s probably less methodology and more just each posters personal assumption. And keep in mind that when people on CC are discussing tiers, they’re not neccessarily students or proponents of the USNWR rankings, so they may be again, tossing around personal opinions on what school is in what tier, rather than tying it to any objective arrangement.</p>
<p>Smithie – I went to USNWR and I still don’t discern an obvious Tier ranking system. There are Nationally Ranked Universities, Regionally Ranked Universities, Nationally Ranked Colleges and Regionally Ranked Colleges. Sorry to be dense but where are the Tiers?</p>
<p>^^^
THey used to classify by tiers and they were easy to see when you looked at the lists. In 2012 it isn’t apparent, maybe they got rid of that stratification. What it used to be was within each category, like National Universities, they would have tiers. The top tier was something like the top 50 or top 100 schools (I can’t remember).</p>
<p>cbug, when I went to this website (by googling “Tier 1 universities”), which is run by USNWR, I found the tier rankings clearly listed: [2011</a> College Rankings - Top Ranking Universities for 2011 - US News Rankings and Reviews](<a href=“Web Page Under Construction”>Web Page Under Construction) </p>
<p>Just above the red line, you’ll see three small links that say Tier 1, Tier 2, and Unranked. Click on thiem and you’ll see them for 2011.</p>
<p>I guess they still have tiers, but I go to my listing on the US News site it is not as apparent as it used to be. So I decided to check out if this has changed.</p>
<p>In the list Smithie provided, 250 schools are in the first tier (apparently 75% of all National Universities), Only 25% in the second, and there is no other tier. It does not seem like this is how I remembered it - there were more tiers and less schools in the top tier. As it turns out, there have been changes. So knowing what tier a school is in doesn’t provide much information. I don’t think this is what peiople mean when they say “Tier 1” - that a school is in the top 250.
[Frequently</a> Asked Questions: College Rankings - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/08/17/frequently-asked-questions-college-rankings#7]Frequently”>http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/08/17/frequently-asked-questions-college-rankings#7)</p>
<p>What changes have been made to this year’s rankings?
</p>
<p>Thanks for the info. Now it seems that the Tier 1, 2 and 3 terms are really rendered useless. I guess I had always imagined that the top 20-50 schools would be considered Tier 1. Everything after that is up for grabs.</p>