What divides Tier 1 and 2?

gadad
Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:30:55 +0000

U.S. News and World Report makes a lot of money on an annual issue in which they rank colleges and universities. The used to rank the schools in each category of institution and call the top 25% in each category the “1st Tier,” the next 25% the “2nd Tier,” the next 25% the “3rd Tier,” and the bottom 25% the “4th Tier.” Then they made more money by charging the schools in the 1st Tier a licensing fee to display their logo on their website and celebrate that they were designated as being in the Top Tier by USN&WR.

A couple years ago, USN&WR realized that if they combined the top three "tiers into one giant bloc and called it the “1st Tier” they could charge three times as many schools the licensing fee. So now the former 1st, 2nd and 3rd Tier schools have all been collapsed into their “1st Tier,” and the bottom 25% of each of their ranking categories is what they call the “2nd Tier.”

If this sounds arbitrary and manipulative, it’s because it absolutely is. Don’t put too much faith in it. UA and UConn are good, solid public universities that are the flagship public schools of their states. They are both reputable without being either prestigious or deficient.