What happened to W&M, Brandeis, Tulane, Pepperdine and others..from historically T50 to outside looking in?

[Mambojambo2024]

As a mom that has not really been paying attention to current rankings until very recently …..what happened to schools that used to constantly be ranked in the t35-t50 now completely out of the t50 the last 2 years?

Avg rank from 2015-2023….even if you went back 25 years, it wouldn’t deviate much from the avg below….until now.

William & Mary = 35
Brandeis = 37
Tulane = 42
Pepperdine = 49

[Anonymous]

US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

If the education is the same then they don't deserve the slide down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

If the education is the same then they don't deserve the slide down.

They really do. Most colleges at the top have significantly improved their education and their academic offerings the past few years. What has Pepperdine done? Conservative principles are fine, but you need to progress your education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

If the education is the same then they don't deserve the slide down.

They really do. Most colleges at the top have significantly improved their education and their academic offerings the past few years. What has Pepperdine done? Conservative principles are fine, but you need to progress your education.

Great point! They’re spending $250 million on new athletic facilities but what is that really doing for the education of Pepperdine. A seriously misguided school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

If the education is the same then they don't deserve the slide down.

They really do. Most colleges at the top have significantly improved their education and their academic offerings the past few years. What has Pepperdine done? Conservative principles are fine, but you need to progress your education.

What does that even mean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

If the education is the same then they don't deserve the slide down.

They really do. Most colleges at the top have significantly improved their education and their academic offerings the past few years. What has Pepperdine done? Conservative principles are fine, but you need to progress your education.

What does that even mean?

There’s probably educational investments that peers are making that Pepperdine isn’t, and that’s causing their slump. One big trend has been offices of institutional excellence cropping up. Higher education administration requires a ton of investment in new areas of education.

[Anonymous]

Mom wakes up in the year 2024 and realizes things have changed.

Social equity trumps academic excellence.

Ask UC Merced with SAT average of 1080 pre-covid now is a supposed top 50 school according to US News.

Thank you US News for becoming even more irrelevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:US News changed it’s rankings formula in a way that adversely affected these schools.

Pepperdine, unlike the others, really deserves the slide down. They really have not innovated with the times and still signal “white wealthy students at a very expensive school.” I understand they have obligations as a Christian institution, but they seem to be slacking under that title.

If the education is the same then they don't deserve the slide down.

They really do. Most colleges at the top have significantly improved their education and their academic offerings the past few years. What has Pepperdine done? Conservative principles are fine, but you need to progress your education.

How can you possibly know this? According to whom? What metrics?

[Anonymous]

Those are all midsized LAC with acceptance rates in the mid 30s. They are disfavored in the revised USN ranking which prioritizes job outcomes.

[Anonymous]

For example, US News no longer cares if colleges offer small classes. It does now care about number of Pell Grant recipients. Those are fine priorities. If they are yours, use current U News as your guide. If they are not, go back 3-4 years and follow those rankings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mom wakes up in the year 2024 and realizes things have changed.

Social equity trumps academic excellence.

Ask UC Merced with SAT average of 1080 pre-covid now is a supposed top 50 school according to US News.

Thank you US News for becoming even more irrelevant.

The rankings aren’t real. Never have been. There was no magical point in history where the rankings reflected the “truth”. They are and always have been a marketing tactic to sell subscriptions.

So to answer OP’s question, nothing happened to those colleges. They were never T50 because there is no such thing as the “top 50 universities”. They may have improved in some ways, stagnated in others, and even regressed in some others. Just like every other institution on the planet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those are all midsized LAC with acceptance rates in the mid 30s. They are disfavored in the revised USN ranking which prioritizes job outcomes.

Not a single one of these is a liberal arts college…

[Anonymous]

Good summary of the changes and controversy/backlash it prompted.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/admissions/traditional-age/2023/09/22/us-news-rankings-changes-spur-complaints-and-apologies