US News & World Report 2008 College Rankings
U.S. News & World Report came out with their annual “Best College” rankings edition online today, the magazine will be on the newsstands on August 20th. Any changes? This group of schools looks strikingly similar to the 2007 rankings despite the magazine’s vows to make “substantial changes in methodology.” The top ten is still dominated by brand names and Ivies, and the top 3 spots haven’t budged. Umm, let’s see, the University of Pennsylvania moved up from #7 to #5…
The Best Values section will be far more valuable to students who are researching which colleges to attend: Where Applying Early May Help, Schools That Award the Most (and Least) Need-Based Aid and Schools Whose Freshmen Are Least (and Most) Likely to Return
Best National Universities 2008
1. Princeton University (NJ)
2. Harvard University (MA)
3. Yale University (CT)
4. Stanford University (CA)
5. California Institute of Technology
6. University of Pennsylvania
7. Massachusetts Inst. Of Technology
8. Duke University (NC)
9. Columbia University (NY)
10. University of Chicago
11. Dartmouth College (NH)
12. Cornell University (NY)
13. Washington University in St. Louis
14. Brown University (RI)
15. Johns Hopkins University (MD)
16. Northwestern University (IL)
17. Emory University (GA)
18. Rice University (TX)
19. University of Notre Dame (IN)
20. Vanderbilt University (TN)
21. University of California — Berkeley
22. Carnegie Mellon University (PA)
23. Georgetown University (DC)
24. University of Virginia
25. University of California — Los Angeles
25. University of Michigan — Ann Arbor
Universities with Highest Retention Rates 2008
When looking at college rankings and college stats, an important factor in determining quality is a retention rate above 80%. Of course there is a lot of overlap with the Best National Universities list at the top, but you’ll find many gems with retention rates above 80%.
1. Yale University (CT) – 98%
2. University of Pennsylvania – 98%
3. University of Notre Dame (IN) – 98%
4. Stanford University (CA) – 98%
5. Princeton University (NJ) – 98%
6. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology – 98%
7. Harvard University (MA) – 98%
8. Dartmouth College (NH) – 98%
9. Columbia University (NY) – 98%
10. Washington University in St. Louis – 97%
11. University of Virginia – 97%
12. University of Chicago – 97%
13. Univ. of California–Los Angeles – 97%
14. University of California–Berkeley – 97%
15. Rice University (TX) – 97%
16. Northwestern University (IL) – 97%
17. Georgetown University (DC) – 97%
18. Duke University (NC) – 97%
19. California Institute of Technology – 97%
20. Brown University (RI) – 97%
21. U. of North Carolina–Chapel Hill – 96%
22. University of Michigan–Ann Arbor – 96%
23. Tufts University (MA) – 96%
24. Johns Hopkins University (MD) – 96%
25. Cornell University (NY) – 96%
26. Vanderbilt University (TN) – 95%
27. Univ. of Southern California – 95%
28. College of William and Mary (VA) – 95%
29. Brandeis University (MA) – 95%
30. Boston College – 95%
31. Wake Forest University (NC) – 94%
32. University of Rochester (NY) – 94%
33. University of Florida – 94%
34. Univ. of California–San Diego – 94%
35. University of California–Irvine – 94%
36. Lehigh University (PA) – 94%
37. Emory University (GA) – 94%
38. Carnegie Mellon University (PA) – 94%
I’m sick of the rankings undermining American competitiveness by incentivizing institutional behavior that privileges the privileged, undermines equality and fairness, and diverts schools’; priorities from educating students to fudging figures. Am I just ranting here? Maybe. But I try to back it up with some more meat in my op-ed on the Huffington Post today.
Zach,
Your op-ed was great. My overly-optimistic hope for the future is that the facts get out (rankings are crap) and seep into the minds of high school students deeply enough so they’ll ignore the advice of their helicopter parents (who get their info from rankings lists)and will apply to schools based on how well the student and the school will mesh. Is it possible to rant in an optimistic manner?
The fact of the matter is that rankings DO matter. When business hire their employees they look at where you raduated from. If two people both have a 3.7 GPA but one graduated from Yale while the other graduated from a small school that noone has ever heard of, the person from Yale will be the one to get hired
Common sense shows these rankings are off base.
First, you have the state of Texas with the second largest population in the nation.
How many universities are ranked from there? Very few! That is not a likely statistic.
You have all the schools piled up on the East and a handful on the West Coast. That graph alone points to the biased behavior of the rankings.
The colleges that are heard about in the media by Sports or some other method seem to climb up higher in the rankings. Look at the history of the rankings through the years.
Now, let’s go to the topic of music for a random selection. North Texas is considering one of the top 5 music university in the nation. They are listed as a fourth tier school? How can that be possible? Biased you say?
Schools do not change overnight either. My favorite one that showed up this year was Kansas. How did they climb from a bottom tier school up the top 100? Good football team maybe??? This makes no sense.
The good measure that I use is where do I find my great hires from? I cannot find anyone decent in California or the East coast to be blunt. Dallas is where I get my best engineers. Where did these students go to college? Oklahoma State, University of Oklahoma, Texas, Texas AM, and Texas Tech. Of those five I listed, none are in the top 25 and two are even listed as a third tier. Not likely.
So, look at where the reviewers are coming from? They are coming from the area were the highest rated schools are listed. Biased — I would say so.
My last rant is — please lose these rankings. They make no sense and they appear highly biased.
Simone Hunter – Graduating from Yale seems to prove nothing.
… here is a thought for you to ponder… 80% of the top richest Americans do NOT have degrees.
Bill Gates, Sheldon Adelson, Lawrence Ellison, Larry Page, Kirk Kerkorian, Michael Dell, Paul Allen do not have earned degrees (honorary degrees do not count here).