U.S. News has compiled a new ranking to determine which top-ranked public universities in the 2010 edition of America's Best Colleges have the largest percentage of out-state-students. This new ranking is useful if you are a prospective student looking to apply to a public university outside your own state, since it will enable you to determine which top publics have the largest and smallest enrollments from out of state. It will also give you some indication of the likelihood of getting accepted.

Here are the highlights:

On December 10, U.S. News will publish online its third annual America's Best High Schools rankings of public high schools in the United States. This year, we are planning to expand these rankings to include all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

The rankings will reach newsstands and monthly magazine subscribers starting around December 17, as part of the January 2010 issue.

To produce America's Best High Schools rankings, U.S. News teams up with School Evaluation Services, a K-12 education data research business run by Standard & Poor's. SES developed the comprehensive methodology, which reflects how well high schools serve all their students, not just those who are collegebound.

The Government Accountability Office has concluded that the U.S. News Best Law Schools rankings are one the key factors behind skyrocketing law school tuitions. That's according to an October report by the GAO entitled "Higher Education: Issues Related to Law School Cost and Access."

The GAO said that, "according to law school officials, the move to a more hands-on, resource-intensive approach to legal education and competition among schools for higher rankings appear to be the main factors driving the cost of law school, while ABA accreditation requirements appear to play a minor role. Additionally, officials at public law schools reported that recent decreases in state funding are a contributor to rising tuition at public schools."

We've just started the data collection for the upcoming 2011 edition of America's Best Graduate Schools, which will be published in early spring 2010. The statistical survey data collection for business, law, engineering, medicine, and education programs began at the end of October on our password-secured website. The deadline to complete the statistical surveys is in early December 2009.

The grad school peer assessment surveys also have gone out in the field. Our goal was to have all the first mailings sent out by October 30. The peer surveys have roughly eight weeks in the field, with a second survey mailing going to those who don't respond the first time. U.S. News works with a contractor, Synovate, to administer the peer survey mailings.

I have just returned from the International Conference on World University Ranking and Quality Assurance of Higher Education 2009, which was held in Taipei and Pingtung, Taiwan. The conference was organized by the National Pingtung University of Science and Technology and by the Higher Education and Accreditation Council of Taiwan. There were participants from many universities from all parts of Taiwan.

I spoke on U.S. News's America's Best Colleges rankings and the impact those rankings have had in the United States in terms of prospective students and of the colleges themselves. I also discussed some of the implications of the U.S. News ranking experience for universities in Taiwan. In addition, I talked about the reasons behind and implications of the current phenomenon that has led to college rankings being published in over 30 countries around the world. Finally, I discussed in great detail the recently launched second annual U.S. News World's Best Universities rankings, explaining why U.S. News is doing global university rankings and how global university rankings differ from rankings of the colleges in just one country.

U.S. News has just published our second annual World's Best Universities rankings. These rankings are based on data from the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, which were produced in association with QS Quacquarelli Symonds. One of the world's leading networks for careers and education, QS Quacquarelli Symonds has been publishing world rankings since 2004.

The World's Best Universities rankings include the following lists:

If you are looking for schools that have some unique academic programs and also provide an especially rich academic environment on campus, then you may want to visit the Academic Programs to Look For list that's part of America's Best Colleges 2010.

For the eighth consecutive year, U.S. News is publishing a list of schools with outstanding examples of academic programs that are commonly linked to student success at college.

Why did we choose these particular types of programs? We felt that it was important to look at innovative things that schools do that go beyond the rankings that we publish. With the help of education experts, including staff members of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, we identified eight such types of programs that have been shown to enhance learning experiences. Next, we invited college presidents, chief academic officers, deans of students, and deans of admissions from more than 1,400 schools to nominate up to 10 institutions with stellar examples of each program type. We list in alphabetical order the ones that were mentioned most often.