2024 US News rankings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should USNWR rank the service academies like they do? They must very loosely fit into USNWR's definition of a liberal arts college based on their degree granting but it is a big stretch to compare the Naval Academy with Amherst or Swarthmore. I'm surprised the service academies award at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study. Otherwise they'd be in the USNWR Regional Colleges category, where schools focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.

I glanced at WSJ and Forbes and it didn't look like they rank the military academies in their combined rankings.

Is it fair to compare CalTech with Yale? Or Dartmouth with UCLA?

Schools are different. Most academy grads do their four years of service and that's it. Employers seem to like them and regard them as well educated as people that went to Amherst and Swarthmore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"These rankings don't matter" crowd sounds similar to the Test optional crowd that secretly pays $500/hr to test prep their kids to move from 1200 to 1250 .

People, the only rankings that matter is US News and this is it for 2024!

With the biggest beneficiaries being the UCs, which are test blind.

+1. Zing to that annoying poster who won’t shut up about tutoring!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does DCUM feel about Chicago being out of the top 10 in all major US rankings now (USNWR, WSJ, Forbes)? It has been a magnet for DC area students, especially from particular private schools where a number of kids were applying ED2.

Does it make applying ED2 to Hopkins looks a little better now?

Ranking changes do not change actual prestige. The tail does not wag the dog. US News is getting sillier and sillier.

USNEWS said it themselves in this article, which also outlines updates to methodology: https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-rankings-blog/articles/2023-08-25/2024-best-colleges-rankings-coming-sept-18

Changes in methodology will induce changes in rank. There tend to be smaller changes in rank among those schools that typically place toward the very top or very bottom of the rankings. That's because their separation from most other schools insulates them somewhat from adjustments in methodological approach. In contrast, schools with data that resembles the breadth of other schools – which typically place toward the middle of the rankings, tied with several others – tend to incur changes that are larger in scale.

Bottom line, elite schools will remain in the top 20...they'll continue to shift around year to year, but they are typically reliably always ranked highly because they have the breadth of qualities needed to stay there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does DCUM feel about Chicago being out of the top 10 in all major US rankings now (USNWR, WSJ, Forbes)? It has been a magnet for DC area students, especially from particular private schools where a number of kids were applying ED2.

Does it make applying ED2 to Hopkins looks a little better now?

Ranking changes do not change actual prestige. The tail does not wag the dog. US News is getting sillier and sillier.

Maybe not among the Ivies - but of course the rankings affect the perceived prestige of all the others.

Not when they have schools moving 10 or more places in the course of the year. Obviously the school didn’t change in one year. Now multiple that to many schools have movements. Then it becomes clear how malleable the whole ratings game is amd frankly US News significantly devalued their brand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was expecting Yale to drop out of top 5. Maybe next year.

Who did you think would move above Yale though? Maybe CalTech? I feel like people might really question the rankings if Penn or Duke moved ahead of Yale.

[Anonymous]

Why are services academies included as SLACs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. It looks like business at UVA fell out of the top ten.

It’s really pathetic that you went and looked up specifically business rankings and then paid to get access to below 10! The green eyed monster certainly has you! And it’s no 3 with the Wall Street Journal by the way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thoughts about W&M dropping?

It’s the most expensive public college in the nation for in state students. 60k for OOS as a public with minimal OOS aid. And it’s not particularly diverse or socially mobile (I mean, #280 in social mobility for a public). And it doesn’t have a lot of pell grant kids. IOW, it may be public, but it’s still a rich kids school (or UMC DCUM school). Wonky rich kids from wealthier areas of VA. But, affluent all the same. It was never going to do well under the new DEI formulation.

It’s ranked 6th in undergrad teaching, which is what I care about.

—parent of a WM kid.

DP. I think it's been falling in desirability for a very long time and the rankings are starting to reflect that.

If that were the case, they would drop a few points a year every year. Not all once, the year the metrics chanGed so much. Also, application numbers and increasing GPAs and test scores don’t bear out your assertion. Neither does multiple schools making much larger ups and downs in a single year.

But it doesn’t really matter. In a few years, they will change the ranking data again to keep it fresh, and we’ll do this again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this makes sense. Schools like Florida and the UC schools do well at graduating kids of different means throughout their state. I've always thought some schools like Tulane and Northeastern to be overhyped and overpriced. My best friend's daughter goes to Case Western and all her into classes have a few hundred people in them. At that point. why go there over William & Mary, VT, or Maryland? I do wonder if some privates will have trouble with their yield now. And some of the drops are wild - most Washington University and Tufts grads I know are the kind of people to care about rankings so I'm sure the drop will be hard for them.

When all the privates drop in sync, it has very little meaning. People will just take US News less seriously, which is a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"These rankings don't matter" crowd sounds similar to the Test optional crowd that secretly pays $500/hr to test prep their kids to move from 1200 to 1250 .

People, the only rankings that matter is US News and this is it for 2024!

With the biggest beneficiaries being the UCs, which are test blind.

+1. Zing to that annoying poster who won’t shut up about tutoring!

Does anyone really believe UCSB or Davis are T30?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alabama and VCU are ranked the same - 142

It’s UAB at #142. UA Tuscaloosa is #170.

Even worse then. VCU is ranked much higher than 'Bama!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LAC rankings out as well. Service academies all rose, general moderate shuffling among the others but maybe no giant leaps or drops.

Actually I just noticed one – Soka dropped fairly far. That shows that US News is maybe valuing endowments less this time around.

Also, right now they have Washington & Lee at both 11 and 21!

Nobody cares about SLACs

That’s silly. Not everyone wants to be in high tech or finance. There needs to be a variety of choices in different fields of study. Wouldn’t be much of a country if everyone just wanted to trade money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this makes sense. Schools like Florida and the UC schools do well at graduating kids of different means throughout their state. I've always thought some schools like Tulane and Northeastern to be overhyped and overpriced. My best friend's daughter goes to Case Western and all her into classes have a few hundred people in them. At that point. why go there over William & Mary, VT, or Maryland? I do wonder if some privates will have trouble with their yield now. And some of the drops are wild - most Washington University and Tufts grads I know are the kind of people to care about rankings so I'm sure the drop will be hard for them.

When all the privates drop in sync, it has very little meaning. People will just take US News less seriously, which is a good thing.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the ivys except Dartmouth moved up. Surprised by a few like UNC and UMich and poor WashU. Disappointed in Emory thought they would move up to 20.

UMich should be at the same ranking level as UCLA and Berkeley. It's more well rounded academically and geographically.

The emphasis on Pell grants pulls it down. State schools can’t control that because it’s decided after admissions. Poorer states like CA will always be higher on this particular ranking as a result

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Elon #1 in undergraduate teaching. That's impressive.

Elon also #1 for First Year Experience. No connection to Elon, but that's pretty good too

But overall ranking dropped from 105 to 133 though..