Recapping Methodology Changes, Articles About Best Colleges Rankings

September 15, 2011 RSS Feed Print

U.S. News made some changes this year to the presentation and ranking methodology for the new, 2012 edition of our Best Colleges rankings. This article explains the methodology changes in detail, including how U.S. News updated the rankings categories; in most cases, these category changes were the main explanation for the biggest movements in this year's Best Colleges rankings. There are also many schools that are new to the 2012 Best Colleges rankings due to these changes.

If you are interested in obtaining an in-depth understanding about the rankings, see the full listing of all the methodologies and data used in all the new Best Colleges rankings.

Since the new Best Colleges rankings came out, there have been many articles written about them in newspapers and other publications across the country. Some of the articles and commentary quote academics and experts who are critical of the rankings, while others are positive. Here are links to some of the more notable coverage about the new Best Colleges rankings from the last few days:

Chronicle of Higher Education: "What Are the Hurdles to Change in Higher Education?"
Chronicle of Higher Education: "U.S. News' Keeps Courting High-School Counselors"
Inside Higher Ed: "U.S. News' Participation Drops"
New York Times: "Forget Who's No. 1 or No. 138: How to Use the U.S. News Rankings"
San Francisco Chronicle/Bloomberg: "Harvard Retains Top Spot on U.S. News 2012 Best College Rankings"
TIME: "U.S. News & World Report's Shocker-Free 2012 College Rankings"
ABC News: "U.S. News and World Report Ranks Best Colleges"
Los Angeles Times: "Deciphering U.S. News & World Report's 2012 best-college rankings"
Reuters: "Princeton joins Harvard atop US News college list"
The Washington Post: "The problem with the U.S. News college rankings"
The Washington Post: "At the top of the U.S. News rankings, a five-way tie"

Tags:: colleges,; rankings,; college admissions

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jane of AK 10:00PM December 13, 2011

Although USNews does a great job in its rankings, there is a side-effect (unintended consequence?) that is creating a misleading culture among the colleges and an inaccurate self-perception by mid level high school seniors.
My daughter is a first-semester senior, and we have been using the USNews rankings for over 18 months, so our decisions are just about final. However, she is getting some compelling literature from Washington U, Vandy, UChicago, Georgetown, and other top tier schools. The unfortunate truth is that she will probably not meet the admission criteria for any of these schools.
Why the false perception? Because top tier schools are elevated in stature with how many applicants they reject. Any of these schools will benefit in the rankings by having her apply with the false hope of admission, only so they can reduce their acceptance rate from the high 20's to the low 20's.
That could be a good measurement in an unbiased world, but the false hope it generates and higher cost of applying and visiting schools out of our reach is a travesty that should not be encouraged by your publication.

Matt Cooney of AL 2:52PM October 28, 2011

Some universities do not use class rank as an admissions factor and, therefore, do not report to US News and World Report the percentage of freshmen in the top 10% or 25% of their high school graduating class. I assume your methodology "punishes" those universities that do not collect nor report this data. True?

Michael Owen of NC 8:39PM September 16, 2011