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Which Ranked Universities Are Doing Better Than Their Academic Reputations?
Tweet Share on Facebook November 29, 2012 CommentU.S. News is publishing a first-ever analysis of colleges in our National Universities ranking category that are overperforming or underperforming their undergraduate academic reputations in terms of their overall Best Colleges 2013 rankings. This concept measures the degree to which a university's overall position in the rankings exceeds or falls short of its undergraduate academic reputation rank.
How should these results be interpreted?
If a school is doing better in the overall rankings than in its undergraduate academic reputation, it means the school is performing relatively well in the other key academic indicators used in the rankings: admissions selectivity, financial and faculty resources, alumni giving, and graduation and retention rates. It also means that a school's undergraduate reputation among its academic peers is lagging behind the progress the school has achieved in the underlying academic indicators.
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'Higher Education Today' Interview Focuses on College Rankings
Tweet Share on Facebook November 21, 2012 CommentI recently appeared on Higher Education Today, a production of the University of the District of Columbia, in a show entitled "U.S. News College Rankings."
The TV program was hosted by Steven Roy Goodman, a Washington, D.C.-based educational consultant, author, and admissions strategist. Also appearing on the show with me was Anne Weeks, upper school head of The Salisbury School, a private independent school located in Salisbury, Md.
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FAQs on George Washington University’s Data Misreporting
Tweet Share on Facebook November 16, 2012 CommentWe have received several questions about the U.S. News decision to move George Washington University to the "Unranked" category in the 2013 Best Colleges rankings. Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
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Update to George Washington University's 2013 Best Colleges Ranking
Tweet Share on Facebook November 14, 2012 CommentOn November 8, George Washington University in Washington, D.C., advised U.S. News that it had erroneously reported its high school class standing information for more than a decade. This misreporting resulted in George Washington submitting to U.S. News a value for the percent of the fall 2011 entering class in the top tenth of their high school class that was inflated by 20 percentage points.
This incorrect data was used in the calculation of GW's overall rank in the 2013 edition of the Best Colleges rankings, published in September, thereby making its rank in the National Universities category higher than it otherwise would have been. The proportion of enrolled freshmen at National Universities who graduated in the top 10 percent of their high school classes counted for 6 percent of the Best Colleges rankings methodology.
Because of the discrepancy in the rankings, U.S. News has changed George Washington University from being a ranked school to an "Unranked" school in the Best Colleges section of usnews.com. Unranked means that U.S. News did not calculate a numerical ranking for this school.
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Graduate School Rankings Data Collection Begins
Tweet Share on Facebook November 8, 2012 CommentU.S. News recently started the data collection for the 2014 edition of the Best Graduate Schools rankings, which will be published in late winter or early spring 2013. The online statistical survey data collection for business, law, engineering, medicine, and education programs began on Oct. 22, 2012. The deadline to complete the statistical surveys is Nov. 30, 2012.
In addition, the new grad school peer assessment reputation surveys are currently being distributed. The peer surveys are in the field for roughly eight weeks; a second mailing will be sent to those who don't respond the first time. U.S. News works with Ipsos Public Affairs, a Chicago-based market research firm, to administer the reputation survey mailings.
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Examining Predicted vs. Actual College Graduation Rates
Tweet Share on Facebook November 1, 2012 CommentIn recent blog posts, U.S. News published exclusive analyses of how successful colleges are at graduating low-income students and high-income students; in addition, we are now able to look at which schools are exceeding or falling short of expectations in terms of graduating their students. This important outcomes indicator measures the "value added" by colleges in the process of educating their students.
U.S. News became a leader in this area of measuring graduation rate performance when we first published these performance scores and used them as part of the Best Colleges rankings for the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking categories, starting with the 1997 rankings and as part of our ranking methodology annually since then.
