U.S. News & World Report Announces the 2021 Best Colleges Rankings

College Search & Lists
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Here are some other interesting observations:

LACs: I think Middlebury has been going on a downward trend over the past years. A couple of years ago it had an acceptance rate of roughly 15% and ranked as high as #6 for LACs. Now it’s all the way down to #9, tied with Hamilton, Carleton, and W&L and with an acceptance rate of 24% for the Class of 2024. Niche ranks it at #11, the first time in recent years that it has ever been ranked below the Top 10 LACs.

T20: I think the top Southern schools (Duke, Vandy, Rice, and Emory) + WashU have stayed really consistent. It’s interesting to see Duke going down and Vandy entering the top 15. Another interesting school is Rice. It’s acceptance rate has been on a decline for the past years (16% for Class of 2022 to 8.7% for Class of 2023 and 10% for Class of 2024). Rice reached the Top 10 in Niche, getting ranked at #8 this year (vs. #10 last year).

Also, Cornell seems to vary a lot depending on the ranking. #18 seems pretty low this year.

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US{M,N,AF}A are still free monetarily, but there is the service obligation. However, the students who would matriculate to them are the ones who want to be military officers, so the service obligation probably does not feel like much of an obligation or cost to them.

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@mass584 that is a difference without a distinction.

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The numbers quoted above for ND are incorrect. They were ranked 15 last year (not 18).

Just another perspective – I have noted that in recent years (basically the 5 years since we started looking at schools) US News has seemed to shuffle ND along with Cornell, Vandy and Rice within the same general range. These 4 schools seem to rise and fall vs each other within the bottom half of the Top 20. The rankings are below.

Only a point separates each school in their Overall Scores (Vandy 88/100, Rice 87/100, Cornell 86/100, ND 85/100). Personally it would not shock me to see the order of these schools shifted around again next year. In the end it doesn’t matter to me because I think they’re all great schools.

2017
Cornell15
ND_15
Rice15

Vandy_15

2018
Cornell14 (tied Brown)
Rice14
Vandy14
ND______18 (so the next spot, not 4 spots down)

2019
Vandy__14 (tied Brown)
Cornell16
Rice_16
ND___18

2020
ND___15
Vandy15
Cornell17
Rice___17

2021
Vandy14 (tied Brown)
Rice16 (tied WashU)
Cornell18
ND______19

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Note that Middlebury ranked 4th in its category four years ago.

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@mass584, agreed on Middlebury and Duke declines being noteworthy. Middlebury has expanded in recent years with expensive acquisitions of the Monterey Institute that may not have integrated well and stretched its smaller endowment in comparison to the other leading LACS. Just goes to show that strong financial acumen and management are so important. Duke’s decline is surprising since the school is very strong in all of these areas. Duke has also done a great job improving its already amazing campus and infrastructure. There will always be bias towards the Ivies; however, the population shift the South should continue to increase Duke’s measures on all the US News metric.

127

And yet the WSJ just ranked Duke tied for #5 and Northwestern #10 and Columbia #15 (which is #3 according to US News?)

Other publications for Duke:

Forbes #9
Niche #6

I don’t think anything has “happened” to Duke, only that US News has slightly tweaked it ranking criteria.

At the end of the day, all of these “top” colleges are world-class institutions of higher learning no matter how you slice and dice the ranking criteria.

128

There are several factors contributing to this, but in my opinion the major issues are these:

(1) High achieving students are increasingly obsessed with attending colleges in (large) cities. Urban colleges like Chicago, Rice, Vandy, USC, etc. have seen a marked increase in popularity and selectivity, whereas many schools in rural areas or smaller towns and cities are struggling to attract as many students as they used to. There is of course little to suggest that a Dartmouth student is at a disadvantage career-wise compared to a student at, say, JHU or Northwestern, but good luck convincing high schoolers of that.

(2) There has been a very noticeable shift in interest from Duke’s traditional strengths (biology/BME, economics, poli sci, and the humanities) to computer science and tech - areas in which Duke is good but not amazing. At Brown, for instance, the number of art history majors has halved over the last decade as the number of CS majors has nearly quadrupled.

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Agreed on those general trends, but have the number of applications to Duke declined relative to Vandy? Durham is a smaller city but I would think the Research Triangle would be preferred to Nashville in terms of the quality of the student life. Also, COVID may shift student interest to less densely populated places. Vanderbilt is definitely rising in the rankings, but not sure if this has necessarily taken away from Duke’s long term pull. Wake Forest has also declined in the rankings and its endowment has not kept pace with the other privates, perhaps that’s related to its location as well. For the Southern LACS, Washington & Lee and Davidson continue to do very well.

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Vandy isn’t really rising in the rankings. In 2015 it was at 16, and since then it has steadily gone back and forth between 14 and 15 for the past 6 years (from 2016-2021)

For Duke, I think looking at their rating is similar to my point about ND above. Duke is ranked 12th, behind CalTech, JHU and NW all tied at 9. At first glance one would think it’s ranked 3 places behind those schools. But if you look at the Overall Score for these schools, Cal, JHU and NW score a 93 while Duke is right behind them at 92. Not as big of a difference as would first appear. That’s one of the things I personally find confusing about these rankings at first glance. But I understand USNews has to have some system to deal with ties.

131

For those interested in longer-term trends, Duke (once comparable to Sewanee in the South, and Union in the North) has climbed two tiers by student SAT profile since 1960, and Vanderbilt has climbed four tiers.

https://books.google.com/books?id=ykQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=life+magazine+1960+college+admission+tufts+bowdoin&source=bl&ots=5BKi5WV8SQ&sig=GFl_LycVnJV8AGIXLX2P9kW97I0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=sO1TT4uPK-jm0QG8ifC3DQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Looking in a little more detail the WSJ and THE US rankings use the same methodology. They have different rankings because they are using different years. The THE US is for 2020 and has not been updated for 2021. Any meaningful ranking should list enough about the methodology to have a good idea why a particular college is ranked higher or lower than another. Understanding whether the difference between the colleges that leads to the difference in ranking is important to you is far more important than the ranking itself. Duke and Columbia were mentioned, so I’ll compare them in THE US (WSJ is behind paywall), as an example.

Duke’s scores were as follows : 39.7 for outcomes + 26.2 for resources + 17.0 for engagement + 6.7 for environment = overall of 89.7

Columbia scores were as follows : 37.1 for outcomes + 27.0 for resources + 16.5 for engagement + 7.9 for environment = overall of 88.4

Outcomes
The largest difference is in the “outcomes metric.” Duke was 39.7 and Columbia was3 37.1 Had Columbia received a s 39.7 outcomes metric like Duke, it would have increased from #15 to #4. Outcomes is determined as follows. The main area where there seems to be a difference is median debt among students who claimed federal FA. Duke federal FA recipients seem to have notably less debt than Columbia. There may also be a difference in the academic reputation survey. Debt is certainly important, but the key metric for a particular student is how much debt he/she would receive, not the median debt for federal FA recipients. I don’t know how the schools did in the academic reputation survey, so that may also have a difference.

12% – Value added to graduate salary (Duke and Columbia both scored 99/100 in previous year, )
11% – 6-year graduation rate (95% at both Duke and Columbia)
10% – Academic reputation (???)
7% – Debt after graduation (Duke = $5k to $19k, Columbia = $11k to $29k)

The colleges that did best in the Outcomes metric were:

  1. Harvard / Princeton
  2. Duke / Yale
  3. Penn / Stanford
  4. Cornell
    – Gap –
  5. Caltech / Hopkins
  6. Chicago / Dartmouth

Environment (Diversity)
The next most influential category for the rankings difference was environment. Columbia scored 7.9, and Duke Scored 6.7. Had Duke scored as high as Columbia in Environment, Duke would have increased from #10 to #4. Environment is calculated as follows. Columbia seems to have notably more Pell grant and international kids. and slightly more URMs. It’s possible that the larger portion Pell grant contributes to the higher median debt after graduation among Federal FA recipients that was noted in the outcomes section.

Diversity is also important to many students, but again desired degree and type of diversity varies from student to student. For example, international students might want a college with many other international students, particularly ones from their same country. Many others might not be particularly concerned about international percentage.

3% Student Diversity (Duke is 41% White / 21% Asian / 16% URM, Columbia is 35% White / 17% Asian / 21% URM)
3% Staff Diversity (This is public, but I didn’t look it up.)
2% % International Students (Duke is 10%, Columbia is 18%)
2% % Pell and First Gen (Duke is 12% Pell, Columbia is 18%)

The colleges that did best in the Environment (Diversity) category were as follows. California publics seem to do particularly well.

  1. UC Irvine
  2. Cal State Northridge / La Sierra
  3. Johnson & Wales
  4. UCLA / CS East 'Bay / SF State
  5. UC Davis / SJSU / UMass Boston
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This is based on CollegeScorecard early career earnings info for federal FA recipients. Looking a the current college scorecard salary for federal FA recipients, this value added graduate salary category may also be a key factor in the different scores. Specific numbers are below for the most enrolled majors at the 2 schools. Duke has a higher earnings listed in all 3 of the most common majors, even though it is in a lower cost of living area. The difference is particularly large in the most common major – economics.

Economics: Duke = $90k, Columbia = $75k
Computer Science: Duke = $100k, Columbia = $96k
Public Policy: Duke = $59k, Columbia = $51k
Biology: Duke = $34k, Columbia = $39k
History: Duke = $51k, Columbia = $42k

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And in the end, moves among these schools of +/-5 or, further down the list, 10 or more, are essentially meaningless.

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Although longtime posters here know better than to rely on rankings, colleges are well aware that students put a lot of stock into these rankings, and they can help or hurt quite a bit when it comes to attracting applicants and matriculants – especially at a time when it is not possible to visit college campuses.

Admin at Chicago grew so concerned about falling outside the top 10 in the mid-2000s that they met with US News staff, for example.

136

In further review of reply #7, it seems that Mount Holyoke was overlooked entirely. It should appear at #34, in a tie with Bucknell.

137

UC Riverside Highlander alumnus…actually UC Merced and UC Santa Cruz now both respectively tied at #40 (Public Rank) and #97 (National Rank)…amazing the ascent of the newest UC Merced in only 16 years!..tying UCSC already (the only location to drop in rank on US News). Amazing all now ranked in Top 40 (Public) and Top 100 (Nationally)!

https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/all-uc-undergraduate-campuses-in-top-40-us-news-world-report

138

I do like to see what goes into these ratings and information about the various schools. For UG students, many may be changing their direction on what they want to study, some will be going on to professional or graduate school - which is another factor on getting to the next step. I think some parents get all wigged out over general and overall school ratings; key is getting the education for the student in their desired field(s), and all the other factors specifically important to an environment where their student will be successful and also be generally happy. A happy student is not going to have energy drained from them which will make them less optimal as a student.

I do think some of the very elite schools can be a very lonely place for many students. I cannot imagine how a student from a lower income feels when many around them bask in wealth and no financial struggles.

It will be interesting to see what path a friend’s S is going to go - he is NMSF; he had sibling 1 at Air Force Academy; sibling 2 at in state very highly ranked nursing program. With 7 children in the family - and very smart parents whose salary is to their advantage for need based. This student was also was on State winning cross country team and good personal running stats. Since our DD had recently graduated from the nursing program his daughter went into, and talking to the dad about the program and advantages, he absorbed things immediately (I have worked in staff positions for two Universities and could instantly see he understood what I was telling him).

DD2 went to our state flagship school in engineering, and they offered a lot in her civil engineering field, so she completed a double major with architectural engineering, and completed on time (as did DD1).

Both DDs had exciting extracurricular and fun students/life around them. They both had some fabulous opportunities that the school programs gave them as participants.

My own academic adventure, my UG school was a very good fit for me and I was able to complete a second major and complete my degree on time. It opened up the graduate program opportunities. I have had an interesting academic and career, along with a fulfilling personal life. And we are now blessed with grandchildren! Get to see them tomorrow!

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Regarding Vandy, it looks like they will rise in the rankings since their acceptance rate has decreased significantly and that is one of ranking factors. It is also a key factor in the WSJ report. Vandy’s selectivity rating is getting close to matching Duke’s selectivity. UVA has also dropped along with Duke. It may be that the Southern location and more conservative frat culture may deter West Coast applicants, which is where the largest number of high school seniors are drawn from.

140

@data10 , @theloniusmonk , et al…

Here’s some more info between UCB and UCLA…

I didn’t include UCI because it’s still a younger campus, still trying to gain a foothold in admissions.

The UC Information center lists the following as UCGPA, which is a capped weighted GPA, with a max of eight +1 weights added to unweighted gpa points. It can be deceiving because if a student takes six or seven a-g courses per each of the four terms in sophomore and junior years, that will drop the UCGPA, all other things being equal. The highest UCGPA possible is 4.40, which would be five courses per term (20 total in soph and jr years) with eight +1 weights and of course with straight A’s in all classes.

Campus… ≥ 4.20…3.80-4.19…3.40-3.79
UCB………54.8%…36.1%…2.7%
UCLA…64.4%…26.3%…3.6%

Clearly, UCB considered quality of high school in 2019 more than UCLA, which accounts for a bit lower grades. Many of the Bay schools sent upwards of 40 students to UCB in that year, whereas the most UCLA took from a particular high school was ~ 20. There are some reports that that aspect of UCB admissions dried up for 2020, because it might have gone more towards an ethnic-based admissions across the state. Students have complained that the large numbers from Bay schools to UCB dropped considerably. Have to keep and eye on that.

Unweighted GPA Per CDS, 2019:
…Ave…% of 4.0 GPAs
UCB…3.89…37%
UCLA…3.90…47.7%

UC again only uses sophomore and junior grades for calculation, but they look at all grades obviously.

SAT Per CDS, 2019:
…% of 1,400-1,600…~ Median…25th…75th
UCB…64%…1,420…1,330…1,520
UCLA…57%…1,410…1,290…1,510

Neither university has particularly high lower-end scores, so it will be interesting to see what test-blind will show for 2021 and beyond. I’m guessing that they’ll have to weigh the quality of high schools more for engineering and other STEM-type majors.

Admit, Enrollment Stats, 2019:
…Admit Rate…
…Total…CA Res…OOS…Int’l
UCB…16.3%…18.6%…16.8%…9.1%
UCLA…12.3%…12.0%…16.5%…8.4%

It looks like COVID affected UCLA’s acceptance rate, and it’s apparently going to be ~ 14% this year, 2020. I believe that total acceptances equals those accepted in regular admissions, plus those who opt in from the wait list divided by total applications.

…Yield Rate…
…Total…CA Res…OOS…Int’l
UCB…45.2%…49.6%…28.6%…55.0%
UCLA…43.2%…53.1%…24.9%…34.6%

UCLA clearly took more first-generation, possibly at-risk type students from California – probably not at-risk, but more that they didn’t have high SAT scores, and this accounted for higher yield from CA for UCLA. Also, the yield in 2020 for UCLA could dip below 40% overall because of COVID. I have no idea how COVID affected UCB, but many colleges took more from their waitlists.

Cross Admits who enrolled at the other, between the two, 2019:

UCB…12% (UCB admits enrolled at UCLA)
UCLA…11% (UCLA admits who enrolled at UCB)

This is the first time UCLA outpaced UCB in cross-admits. I believe that UCB tried to fight this from becoming a trend for 2020 admits. UCLA has to beware of admit tricks of UCB and not broadcast whom it SIRS.