Morse Code: Inside the College Rankings

New Best Colleges Rankings Are Coming Soon

August 4, 2011 RSS Feed Print

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The 2012 edition of the Best Colleges rankings for National Universities, National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, and Regional Colleges will go live on usnews.com on Tuesday, September 13. The site will have the most complete version of the rankings, tables, and lists, and it will have extensive statistical profiles on each school. The Best Colleges site also will have wide-ranging interactivity and a college search to enable students and parents to find the school that best fits their needs. These exclusive rankings will also be published in our newsstand guidebook, which will go on sale and be available through Amazon.com starting September 20.

In order to get the most complete college rankings, tables, expanded school profiles, enhanced college search, and other exclusive interactive tools you will need to sign up for the U.S. News College Compass.

Watch this blog prior to the launch of the new Best Colleges rankings for details on methodology and presentation changes in the new edition of the rankings.

U.S. News will be publishing web-exclusive rankings of colleges by high school counselors from across the United States. Other web-exclusive rankings will include one that shows which schools have the greatest "commitment to undergraduate teaching." For the fourth year in row, this year exclusively online, we will publish the very popular list of "Up-and-Coming Institutions"—the colleges making innovative improvements. In addition, we will have our fifth annual ranking of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. We will also publish new rankings of top undergraduate business programs and top undergraduate engineering programs.

In addition, we have lists, tables, and articles to help you navigate the college application process. Some of these include:

A+ Options for B Students, schools for students who want to go to a good college but don't have straight-A grades.
Paying for College Guide, which shows which schools offer you the best education for the least amount of money and provides other vital information on financial aid and the cost of colleges.
Great Schools, Great Prices, which shows which schools are the best values for those getting need-based financial aid.

You'll also be able to see these tables:

Top public universities
Schools whose students graduate with the most and least debt (College Compass subscription required)
Campus economic diversity
Campus ethnic diversity
Academic Programs to Look For
Schools that award the most (and least) need-based aid
Schools whose freshmen are most (and least) likely to return
Highest graduation rate
Highest proportion of classes under 20 (College Compass subscription required)
Most international students

Searching for a college? Get our complete rankings of Best Colleges.

Tags:: colleges,; rankings,; college admissions

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I would have to say that UC Riverside is one of the most underrated campuses in these college rankings. Not only is this school one of the most ethnically diverse, it is also a great research institution that has been growing at a fast rate, with the medical school opening up in 2013 and all of the new buildings being built with it. I believe that it should at the very least have a higher ranking than UC Santa Cruz.

Festus of CA 9:05PM August 29, 2011

This is one of the best and most underrated institutions in this country. The kids here can talk about anything in the world, face any situation, and have some of the most grounded perspectives on issues happening in the world. I haven't met a kid from here who I didn't admire. Yeah, it's tough and the university itself doesn't fund student life as much as it should, but this results in an incredibly interesting, faceted, humble, independent, and passionate student body. Sort of like a reverse effect? The money ends up going to research, dining, building projects, study abroad, the arts, and other programs rather than a particularly cushioned experience, but students still love their environment. It is an incredibly unique experience.
I will always push for this school's ranking to go up. Should be on par with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton at the very least. The kids here are BRIGHT. They are not one type, but they are all very self-reflective. They are the type of people who you will always know are gonna' be alright in the world because of their way of understanding the world.

Sarah Sathers of CA 7:15PM August 23, 2011