US News Week School Listings

College Search & Lists
1

<p>I really dont understand the list. The school ranks skip. Example.</p>

<pre><code>3 Yale University (CT)
4 University of Pennsylvania
5 Duke University (NC)
5 Stanford University (CA)
7 California Institute of Technology
7 Massachusetts Inst. of Technology
9 Columbia University (NY)
9 Dartmouth College (NH)
</code></pre>

<p>11 Washington University in St. Louis</p>

<p>A school thats in the mid 50’s is actually ranked in the 30’s, if you count the colleges. i dont understand why the numbebers fluctuate like this.</p>

2

<p>If you have two schools tied for 5, the next best school isn’t the 6th best if there are 6 better schools…it’s commonly done in ranking systems for ties, I don’t get your question.</p>

3

<p>its exactly as Arti said. as an illustrative example: let’s say you have two schools tied for No. 1:</p>

<p>1) Harvard and Princeton</p>

<p>and then the next ranked school is Stanford. Well, technically, Stanford would be ranked 3rd:</p>

<p>3) Stanford</p>

<p>Since the first “two” spots have already been filled (even though those schools are both tied)… and on and on…</p>

<p>The method that USNWR uses would show them like this:</p>

<p>1) Harvard

  1. Princeton
  2. Stanford</p>
4

<p>i understand, but if the number is supposed to represent rank, such that, harvard and princ. are tied at first then the second number should continue in that chronology. therefore, stanford should be really second, even though twoi schools are on top of it, because Prin and Harvard and tied. its the difference between rank and number order but w/e thx for the explination.</p>

5

<p>Look at standings in sports,</p>

<p>1-1-3 is the norm when 2 teams are tied for first.</p>

6

<p>The reason for 1-1-3 rather than 1-1-2 is that that third school is in first place, regardless of which of the first two pulls out ahead.</p>