U.S. News Took a Turn With This Year’s College Rankings

Every year U.S. News comes out with rankings of Universities.  Private schools that have billions of dollars were generally at the top of the rankings and public schools were always towards the bottom.  But this year, it was quite the opposite. 

Many private schools have plummeted in their rankings. Princeton still stays at number one and Harvard and Stanford are still tied at number three.  But Dartmouth and the University of Chicago have dropped and the same thing happened to a lot of other schools (click here to see what schools dropped).  This is because U.S. News made some changes to the formula they use to rank universities. 

This year U.S. News put more focus on economic and social mobilities along with graduation rates.  They also dropped five factors that have helped private schools have a higher ranking in previous years. These factors include alumni giving, class size, high school class standing, the proportion of instructional faculty with terminal degrees,  and the proportion of graduates who borrowed federal loans. (click for more information)   

U.S. News changed the formula because in the past many people found the rankings to just be a competition over what school is the wealthiest, rather than which schools offer the best education and outlook to the future for their students.  "Every factor that U.S. News values is a direct or indirect proxy for wealth. The U.S. News rankings have played a role in elite colleges doubling down on asset hoarding and creating pathways that are available only to the elites,”  Evan Mandery, who is a Harvard graduate, said.   (click for more information) 

This new formula has made many private schools upset with their new rankings and they find it very unfair.  Some are even going as far as not participating in U.S. News’  rankings in the future.  “Columbia University withdrew from participation in the rankings earlier this year in protest, as have several professional schools, including our own Law School.”  Vanderbilt University said in their message to U.S. News and World Report.  Meanwhile, public schools are super happy and find this formula to be very fair.  This is creating a whole argument about whether or not the formula is accurate or ever even was.

There are different types of colleges such liberal arts colleges, liberal arts universities, regional universities, regional colleges, national colleges and national universities.  Each of these different types of schools has different things that they offer to their students.  It depends on your preference on what you want to get out of your education. Just because a school might be on the lower end of the rankings doesn’t mean that it necessarily is a bad school.

Ms. D’Annunzio, who is a guidance counselor at Harborfields High School, thinks that students should make their own checklist on what they want in a school.  Then they should research the school and check off the boxes.  After the student has done that, then they should look at the rankings to see where it is nationally, but not base everything off of the rankings.  

Finding the right college is a challenge and sometimes the key to a good fit is found in no national ranking list at all.