College Ranking
"It's not your blue blood, your pedigree or your college degree.
It's what you do with your life that counts."
- Millard Fuller
It's what you do with your life that counts."
- Millard Fuller
What Are College Rankings?
Rank your top 10 favorite movies (action, animation, comedy...). Now compare that with a few national listings. How do they compare? Is there even one comparable option or do you have a few similar choices. They have something ranked high that you've never heard of before reading the list. In the end, you probably liked your list better than the professionals, right?
Now do the same with your favorite music. Now pizza. Now tacos. Now colleges.
College rankings have been used as wonderful marketing tools by magazines or service providers to share their perspective on the "best" in higher education. While these lists do provide a snapshot of what the college offers, you should not value one ranking list over the other, nor should you spend a lot of energy comparing your starting list of colleges to one of the list providers below.
Each list has a different top 10. Lists will come and go (LinkedIn shut down their higher education tools including their college ranking list). Each company uses different methodology (college presidents or student responses or third party data) to create their ranking. Some institutions, like one university in South Carolina, make strategic decisions to boost their ranking. So just like movie rankings, college ranking lists are subjective.
Use ranking lists as tools, not rules. You need your own personalized list. Start by asking if your list of colleges reflect your personal goals and interests. Which are the best academic fit? Best social fit? Best geographic fit? Best career/major fit? Best financial fit? I've listed a few ranking lists, but have not ranked the lists.
University of Arkansas professor, Jonathan Wai, wrote that "college rankings do not measure quality or value of the college education available at institutions, but rather measure the caliber of students that those schools are able to recruit (San Francisco Chronicle).
National and International Ranking Publications
NATIONAL RANKING
The Fiske Guide asked administrators and students to answer open-ended questions about academics, campus setting, student body, financial aid, housing, food, social life and extracurricular activities. Available in book form.
US News & World Report (USNWR) uses fifty different types of numerical rankings based using peer assessment (presidents, provosts, deans), retention, faculty resources, admissions selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate, and alumni giving. in 2018, USNWR updated their criteria.
Forbes (CCAP) uses Student Satisfaction (RateMyProfessor, freshman retention...), Post-Graduate Success (Who's Who, PayScale, student awards (Rhodes, Academy, Grammy, Cambridge...), Faculty Awards (Nobel Prize, Pulitzer, Guggenheim...), Student Debt (loans, default rates...), and Graduation Rate (4-year graduation rate).
Niche ranks the top 100 colleges in each category using "a comprehensive assessment of more than 1,100 U.S. colleges based on millions of statistics and student reviews." They focus on the student and alumni experiences including academics, campus, local area, professors, dorms, food, and athletics.
Kiplinger's methodology uses Competitiveness (admission rate, attendance rate, test scores), Graduation Rates (4-year graduation rate), Academic Support (freshman retention, student/faculty ratio), Cost and Financial Aid (cost of attendance, need-based aid, merit aid...), and Student Indebtedness.
Washington Monthly (WaMo) wanted to introduce a different kind of college ranking. They use Social Mobility (Pell recipients, loan repayment, graduation rank, economic outcomes...), Research (money, number of PhDs...), and Service (Peace Corp, ROTC, work study, community service...). They openly dislike USNWR.
Princeton Review (PR) uses academics, admissions selectivity, financial aid, fire safety, quality of life, environmental awareness, total enrollment and test scores.
The New York Times (College Access Index) introduced a different way to rank colleges - economic diversity. Their ranking considers family income and the net price students pay. Colleges must also have a 75% five-year graduation rate (yes - a bachelor's degree is a four-year degree. Many students take longer.).
Business Insider (BI) ranks the best fifty colleges in America using the US Department of Education data points including median earnings, 4-year graduation rates, freshman retention, net price, percent admitted, average SAT score, and student life experience.
Money uses Quality of Education (6-year graduation rate, Pell Grant recipient outcomes, instructor quality, peer quality...), Affordability (net price of a degree, student debt, student loan repayment and default risk, low-income affordability...), and Outcomes (PayScale, College Scorecard 10-year earnings, Brookings Institution analysis of alumni job skills...).
Wall Street Journal (WSJ) uses Resources (finance, faculty, research papers), Engagement (student, recommendation, interaction, accredited programs), Outcomes (graduation rate, salary, loan repayment, academic reputation), and Environment (international students, student diversity, inclusion, staff diversity). [Subscription needed to view list.]
NOTE: In 2016, Money wrote an article comparing their list with the Wall Street Journal. For example, Stanford ranks #1 (WSJ) and #10 (Money), Duke ranks #7 (WSJ) and #39 (Money), Michigan ranks #24 (WSJ) and #2 (Money), and Brigham Young ranks #103 (WSJ) and #5 (Money).
INTERNATIONAL RANKING
QS World uses academic reputation (field of expertise), employer reputation, student-to-faculty ration, impact of research (faculty), international faculty ratio, and international student ratio. Can also rank by subject.
Times Higher Ed World University Rankings (THE) uses thirteen performance indicators that consider teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
Ranking Methods
As you will quickly see, each organization creates their own scientific formula, or methodology, to determine which colleges and universities it considers the best. With each list, I included their methodology along with some of their data points. The weights (or percentage) given to each category may change from year-to-year. You need to decide which list to use - if any.
And remember to enjoy the college planning process. This is supposed to be fun!
Rank your top 10 favorite movies (action, animation, comedy...). Now compare that with a few national listings. How do they compare? Is there even one comparable option or do you have a few similar choices. They have something ranked high that you've never heard of before reading the list. In the end, you probably liked your list better than the professionals, right?
Now do the same with your favorite music. Now pizza. Now tacos. Now colleges.
College rankings have been used as wonderful marketing tools by magazines or service providers to share their perspective on the "best" in higher education. While these lists do provide a snapshot of what the college offers, you should not value one ranking list over the other, nor should you spend a lot of energy comparing your starting list of colleges to one of the list providers below.
Each list has a different top 10. Lists will come and go (LinkedIn shut down their higher education tools including their college ranking list). Each company uses different methodology (college presidents or student responses or third party data) to create their ranking. Some institutions, like one university in South Carolina, make strategic decisions to boost their ranking. So just like movie rankings, college ranking lists are subjective.
Use ranking lists as tools, not rules. You need your own personalized list. Start by asking if your list of colleges reflect your personal goals and interests. Which are the best academic fit? Best social fit? Best geographic fit? Best career/major fit? Best financial fit? I've listed a few ranking lists, but have not ranked the lists.
University of Arkansas professor, Jonathan Wai, wrote that "college rankings do not measure quality or value of the college education available at institutions, but rather measure the caliber of students that those schools are able to recruit (San Francisco Chronicle).
National and International Ranking Publications
NATIONAL RANKING
The Fiske Guide asked administrators and students to answer open-ended questions about academics, campus setting, student body, financial aid, housing, food, social life and extracurricular activities. Available in book form.
US News & World Report (USNWR) uses fifty different types of numerical rankings based using peer assessment (presidents, provosts, deans), retention, faculty resources, admissions selectivity, financial resources, graduation rate, and alumni giving. in 2018, USNWR updated their criteria.
Forbes (CCAP) uses Student Satisfaction (RateMyProfessor, freshman retention...), Post-Graduate Success (Who's Who, PayScale, student awards (Rhodes, Academy, Grammy, Cambridge...), Faculty Awards (Nobel Prize, Pulitzer, Guggenheim...), Student Debt (loans, default rates...), and Graduation Rate (4-year graduation rate).
Niche ranks the top 100 colleges in each category using "a comprehensive assessment of more than 1,100 U.S. colleges based on millions of statistics and student reviews." They focus on the student and alumni experiences including academics, campus, local area, professors, dorms, food, and athletics.
Kiplinger's methodology uses Competitiveness (admission rate, attendance rate, test scores), Graduation Rates (4-year graduation rate), Academic Support (freshman retention, student/faculty ratio), Cost and Financial Aid (cost of attendance, need-based aid, merit aid...), and Student Indebtedness.
Washington Monthly (WaMo) wanted to introduce a different kind of college ranking. They use Social Mobility (Pell recipients, loan repayment, graduation rank, economic outcomes...), Research (money, number of PhDs...), and Service (Peace Corp, ROTC, work study, community service...). They openly dislike USNWR.
Princeton Review (PR) uses academics, admissions selectivity, financial aid, fire safety, quality of life, environmental awareness, total enrollment and test scores.
The New York Times (College Access Index) introduced a different way to rank colleges - economic diversity. Their ranking considers family income and the net price students pay. Colleges must also have a 75% five-year graduation rate (yes - a bachelor's degree is a four-year degree. Many students take longer.).
Business Insider (BI) ranks the best fifty colleges in America using the US Department of Education data points including median earnings, 4-year graduation rates, freshman retention, net price, percent admitted, average SAT score, and student life experience.
Money uses Quality of Education (6-year graduation rate, Pell Grant recipient outcomes, instructor quality, peer quality...), Affordability (net price of a degree, student debt, student loan repayment and default risk, low-income affordability...), and Outcomes (PayScale, College Scorecard 10-year earnings, Brookings Institution analysis of alumni job skills...).
Wall Street Journal (WSJ) uses Resources (finance, faculty, research papers), Engagement (student, recommendation, interaction, accredited programs), Outcomes (graduation rate, salary, loan repayment, academic reputation), and Environment (international students, student diversity, inclusion, staff diversity). [Subscription needed to view list.]
NOTE: In 2016, Money wrote an article comparing their list with the Wall Street Journal. For example, Stanford ranks #1 (WSJ) and #10 (Money), Duke ranks #7 (WSJ) and #39 (Money), Michigan ranks #24 (WSJ) and #2 (Money), and Brigham Young ranks #103 (WSJ) and #5 (Money).
INTERNATIONAL RANKING
QS World uses academic reputation (field of expertise), employer reputation, student-to-faculty ration, impact of research (faculty), international faculty ratio, and international student ratio. Can also rank by subject.
Times Higher Ed World University Rankings (THE) uses thirteen performance indicators that consider teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.
Ranking Methods
As you will quickly see, each organization creates their own scientific formula, or methodology, to determine which colleges and universities it considers the best. With each list, I included their methodology along with some of their data points. The weights (or percentage) given to each category may change from year-to-year. You need to decide which list to use - if any.
And remember to enjoy the college planning process. This is supposed to be fun!