National Liberal Arts Colleges
︎1. Williams
︎2. Amherst
︎3. Bowdoin
︎3. Claremont McKenna
︎3. Pomona
︎3. Swarthmore
︎3. U.S. Naval Academy
︎8. Harvey Mudd
︎9. U.S. Military Academy
︎10. Wellesley
︎11. U.S. Air Force Academy
︎12. Vassar
︎12. Washington and Lee
︎14. Hamilton
︎14. Wesleyan
︎16. Carleton
︎16. Davidson
︎16. Grinnell
︎19. Barnard
︎19. Middlebury
National Universities
︎1. MIT
︎2. Princeton
︎3. Harvard
︎4. Yale
︎5. Caltech
︎5. Stanford
︎7. UPenn
︎8. Duke
︎9. Johns Hopkins
︎9. Northwestern
︎9. UChicago
︎12. Columbia
︎12. Dartmouth
︎14. Carnegie Mellon
︎14. Cornell
︎16. Brown
︎16. RIce
︎16. Vanderbilt
︎16. WashU
︎20. UC Berkeley
︎20. UCLA
︎20. Notre Dame
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-liberal-arts-colleges
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
Do you know what year they’re using for graduation rates?
Middlebury’s 4-year graduation rate is listed as 56%. The Class of 2023 had a 55.4% 4-year graduation rate (due to Covid flexibility) but a 93% 6-year graduation rate. [edited to note that US News looks at 6-year rate, not 4-year, per clarification below]
IMO: U.S. News should disallow ranking ties.
It’s a completely meaningless exercise 
As a ranking component, only six-year graduation rates are considered, however.
In the past, schools were not placed in ties. U.S. News decided this approach conveyed false precision.
MIT at one is a bit surprising given its strong biased towards the sciences. Duke at #8 seems much too high. Cornell ahead of Brown is simply incorrect. I thought 1/3 of the incoming classes at the CA schools struggled with basic algebra. Northeastern always makes for a chuckle seeing it ranked inside the top 100 .
Since you broke it, you should post the revised NESCAC rankings in our thread.
I was more surprised at Caltech’s ranking for this reason. MIT is very strong in some non-science areas.
Of potential interest, Caltech did place first once in the National Universities category, in 1999.
Caltech’s average is #7 over the past 25 or so years.
I believe that was in 2000. It has also placed inside the top 5 a handful of time since 1990.
This occurred after USNWR fixed their statistical methodology to use standard practices. Upon the change in statistical methodology resulting in Caltech being ranked #1, USNWR applied a special “logarithmic adjuster” in the criteria where Caltech surpassed HYP by largest degree, and there were reports of firing staff. Caltech never ranked above HYP again.
Black, Scholes, Merton, Samuelson, Modigliani, and on and on in Econ/finance. Chomsky, Judith Jarvis Thompson, Stalnaker in Philosophy, et. alia.
