The U.S. News College Rankings Are Out. Cue the Rage and Obsession. [View all]

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Tue Sep 24, 2024, 09:08 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: New York Times

The U.S. News College Rankings Are Out. Cue the Rage and Obsession.

Every year, U.S. News & World Report publishes rankings that often change very little, though they draw attention and frustration from universities and applicants.


Princeton University led the rankings -- again -- among national universities. An Rong Xu for The New York Times

By Alan Blinder
Sept. 24, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET

After months of tumult on American college campuses, relative stability in one realm returned on Tuesday, when U.S. News & World Report published its oft-disparaged but nevertheless closely watched rankings. ... Many top schools held the same, or similar, spots they had a year ago.

Among national universities, Princeton was ranked No. 1 again, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Stanford, which tied for third last year, fell to No. 4. U.S. News again judged Williams College the best among national liberal arts colleges. Spelman College was declared the country's top historically Black institution.

Few franchises in American higher education are as contentious as the U.S. News rankings. Over the decades, their publisher has faced trouble with manipulated data, complaints about murky methodologies, accusations of revenge and the foundational question of whether it is appropriate to rank colleges.

To U.S. News, which retired its print newsmagazine in 2010, the rankings are a bastion of its largely bygone influence. They are also a source of millions of dollars each year, as universities pay licensing fees to promote how they fared. U.S. News, which insists that its business relationships with schools do not affect rankings, contends that it is performing a public service by distilling a chaotic collegiate marketplace for weary consumers.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/24/us/us-news-rankings-colleges.html

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Hat tip, WTOP

https://wtop.com/education/2024/09/where-are-the-best-colleges-in-the-us/

https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges?srcusn_pr

https://news.google.com/search?forbest+colleges+us+news&hlen-US&glUS&ceidUS%3Aen

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The first fourteen schools are private. All but three are in the northeast. All have tuitions from $62K to $71K.

Finally, at position number fifteen, a public school, UCLA, shows up. In-state tuition is $14K.

The bargains of the bunch start at number 27, UNC--Chapel Hill. In-state students can attend UNC for $9,003.

In-state tuition at UFlorida, tied for number thirty, is $6,381.