New USNWR rankings coming out in one week. Post predictions here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big changes USNWR were a year or two ago. This year we will see only minor shuffling, about which DCUM will still overreact.

The big question is whether or not some of those changes will be rolled back in light of the new administration.

Or in light of the fact that many people think it jumped the shark….

That too......

[Anonymous]

I wonder if USNWR will shake things up by dethroning Princeton from #1

[Anonymous]

https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2025-08-26/behind-the-numbers-announcing-the-best-colleges-rankings-launch

[Anonymous]

Faber College is on the rise. Dean Wormer has a plan to take them to the top.

[Anonymous]

University of Richmond to the moon!

[Anonymous]

Many DCUM snowflakes will change their college lists once the ranking is out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big changes USNWR were a year or two ago. This year we will see only minor shuffling, about which DCUM will still overreact.

The big question is whether or not some of those changes will be rolled back in light of the new administration.

I agree it’s possible they will make tweaks or adjust methodology to appease the administration, or at least give the appearance that they are incentivizing more moderate institutions.

[Anonymous]

USNWR rankings and ACT scores in the same day! Can’t wait.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Waiting to see if Notre Dame falls and Texas A&M soars in the rankings.

Oooh, that hurt.

[Anonymous]

Umich top 20

[Anonymous]

Here's what they said in advance:

The 2026 edition of U.S. News Best Colleges will be released on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, on usnews.com. The accompanying print guidebook is available for preorder.

We understand the importance of transparency, and as part of the launch, we will once again publish more than 15 articles on usnews.com detailing our ranking methodologies. While the 2026 rankings will use the same factors and weights as the previous edition, we will adjust how a few were calculated.

Key Methodological Notes
This year’s rankings will reflect greater stability than recent editions due to two key factors: graduate outcomes data and ranking categories.

Graduate Outcomes Data
The College Scorecard did not update its institutional graduate earnings and debt data in time for our analysis. As a result, we will reuse the same data from the previous edition for the 10% of our formula that these factors represent in total. We anticipate future updates to this data, especially with recent legislative changes and our ongoing communication with the College Scorecard.

Ranking Categories
No schools changed their ranking categories in this edition, even though the Carnegie Classifications framework was updated earlier this year. This choice aligns with what U.S. News has communicated publicly to institutional research forums over the past year regarding the 2026 edition. We will provide more details on our approach to category changes in future editions later this year.

Data Collection and Availability
We are pleased to report strong participation in U.S. News’s statistical survey from the academic community. For example, 99 of the top 100 National Universities and 97 of the top 100 National Liberal Arts Colleges have directly reported to us. This information includes fall 2024 admissions, enrollment and faculty details. Note that schools’ eligibility to be ranked is not contingent on their participation in U.S. News’s surveys.

Some of this data may be available on usnews.com before the U.S. Department of Education officially releases it. For institutional researchers, more granular data is accessible to our subscribers through the Academic Insights tool. We encourage you to request a demo to learn more about how this tool can support your work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big changes USNWR were a year or two ago. This year we will see only minor shuffling, about which DCUM will still overreact.

The big question is whether or not some of those changes will be rolled back in light of the new administration.

I agree it’s possible they will make tweaks or adjust methodology to appease the administration, or at least give the appearance that they are incentivizing more moderate institutions.

I doubt it. Whatever legitimacy USNWR's rankings have is largely due to the fact that they manage to shake up the rankings enough each year to keep the public interest but not enough to undermine that legitimacy. It's not a great look to have wildly different rankings each year. It's difficult to put any faith in a ranking system with frequent massive shifts. What does it really mean if University X was ranked, say, #15 last year, and #34 this year without any meaningful institutional changes. Was that university's ranking inaccurate last year or is it inaccurate this year? Forbes is a prime example of this: There are schools that were ranked in the top 5 a decade ago that are now ranked outside the top 30. Universities aren't like football teams whose players change each year. They're pretty consistent from year to year, although there may be gradual changes on a decade-to-decade basis.

TLDR: USNWR has a strong incentive to employ minor changes each year to keep reader interest but avoid frequent overhauls to lose legitimacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's what they said in advance:

The 2026 edition of U.S. News Best Colleges will be released on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, on usnews.com. The accompanying print guidebook is available for preorder.

We understand the importance of transparency, and as part of the launch, we will once again publish more than 15 articles on usnews.com detailing our ranking methodologies. While the 2026 rankings will use the same factors and weights as the previous edition, we will adjust how a few were calculated.

Key Methodological Notes
This year’s rankings will reflect greater stability than recent editions due to two key factors: graduate outcomes data and ranking categories.

Graduate Outcomes Data
The College Scorecard did not update its institutional graduate earnings and debt data in time for our analysis. As a result, we will reuse the same data from the previous edition for the 10% of our formula that these factors represent in total. We anticipate future updates to this data, especially with recent legislative changes and our ongoing communication with the College Scorecard.

Ranking Categories
No schools changed their ranking categories in this edition, even though the Carnegie Classifications framework was updated earlier this year. This choice aligns with what U.S. News has communicated publicly to institutional research forums over the past year regarding the 2026 edition. We will provide more details on our approach to category changes in future editions later this year.

Data Collection and Availability
We are pleased to report strong participation in U.S. News’s statistical survey from the academic community. For example, 99 of the top 100 National Universities and 97 of the top 100 National Liberal Arts Colleges have directly reported to us. This information includes fall 2024 admissions, enrollment and faculty details. Note that schools’ eligibility to be ranked is not contingent on their participation in U.S. News’s surveys.

Some of this data may be available on usnews.com before the U.S. Department of Education officially releases it. For institutional researchers, more granular data is accessible to our subscribers through the Academic Insights tool. We encourage you to request a demo to learn more about how this tool can support your work.

Seems like they don't expect much to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big changes USNWR were a year or two ago. This year we will see only minor shuffling, about which DCUM will still overreact.

The big question is whether or not some of those changes will be rolled back in light of the new administration.

I agree it’s possible they will make tweaks or adjust methodology to appease the administration, or at least give the appearance that they are incentivizing more moderate institutions.

I doubt it. Whatever legitimacy USNWR's rankings have is largely due to the fact that they manage to shake up the rankings enough each year to keep the public interest but not enough to undermine that legitimacy. It's not a great look to have wildly different rankings each year. It's difficult to put any faith in a ranking system with frequent massive shifts. What does it really mean if University X was ranked, say, #15 last year, and #34 this year without any meaningful institutional changes. Was that university's ranking inaccurate last year or is it inaccurate this year? Forbes is a prime example of this: There are schools that were ranked in the top 5 a decade ago that are now ranked outside the top 30. Universities aren't like football teams whose players change each year. They're pretty consistent from year to year, although there may be gradual changes on a decade-to-decade basis.

TLDR: USNWR has a strong incentive to employ minor changes each year to keep reader interest but avoid frequent overhauls to lose legitimacy.

Sorry, I wrote the post above and meant to respond to a prior comment.

[Anonymous]

Don't go changing. To try to please me.