Tuesday was when the U.S. News college rankings came out: The top is Harvard again. Princeton is in second place … once more. The Ivy League bias of Yale has made them number three. National college rankings come from that: Most in academia criticize this list that has a lot to do with money. However, the U.S. News Best Colleges 2011 offers a useful matrix that students and parents can use to help choose which school is best for them, despite the fact that some higher education pundits would disagree.
U.S. News vs. World Report
To rank colleges, the U.S. News report uses a bunch of categories schools are put into. Best Colleges 2011 groups American colleges and universities by factors like the highest level of degrees conferred by discipline. There are more than 1,400 schools in this while they’re divided into categories including National Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Universities, Regional Colleges and National Universities. The schools in the Regional Universities and Regional Colleges categories are placed into four geographic regions: North, South, Midwest and West. Each school had data on 16 indicators of academic quality gathered. The total score is how colleges get ranked.
Getting back into the black
There are numerous different listings of higher education like the U.S. News and the World Report college rankings are. The Princeton Review is one of these that nobody would care about if it didn’t list the Princeton top party schools. Higher education critics take a list like the U.S. News Best Colleges 2011 more seriously. CNN’s MoneyWatch had Lynn O’Shaughnessy say the whole thing is a joke. She writes that U.S. News doesn’t make an effort to measure the type of learning taking place at schools across the country. 25 percent of each school’s score is depending on their reputation with the U.S. News and World Report.
Value tends to be most important
For the past 10 years, Harvard or Princeton have taken turns or shared the No. 1 spot on the U.S. News college rankings every year since 2001. But for the majority of students, David Gura at NPR writes that topping the national college rankings is irrelevant. Colleges have less money, making for spending budget cuts and enrollment caps. There are more people eager to apply for school. Getting accepted into college is difficult for many. Ranking a college for the U.S. News contains considering alumni giving, faculty resources, freshman retention, graduation and academic reputation. But in the increasingly costly world of higher education, finding value is still one of probably the most essential — if not the most significant — factors in choosing a school
Additional reading
U.S. News and World Report
colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges
CBS Money Watch
moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/blog/college-solution/why-us-news-college-rankings-are-a-joke/703/
NPR
npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/08/17/129248940/what-do-best-college-rankings-tell-us?ft=1 and amp;f=103943429 and amp;sc=tw and amp;utm_source=twitterfeed and amp;utm_medium=twitter
