US News 2017 rankings

Gator88NE
Sat, 03 Dec 2016 11:49:53 +0000

Don’t read too much into the rank changes of most of the top 50 (or even top 100). A lot has to do with how many schools are “tied” or clustered into groups and the impact of a slight change can cause a large movement in rankings.

Five schools are tied at 39, no schools are ranked 40 thru 43, then 6 schools are ranked 44, then no schools are ranked 45 thru 49. The difference between a school ranked 39 and 50 is very small, and really is just noise. Next year a school ranked 39 could be ranked 50, or 50 could move up to 39. It wouldn’t be as large a swing as it may first appear.