US News Academic Reputation Score Changes, 2015 vs 2023, vs National Rankings

One of the most controversial aspects of the U.S. News national university rankings is the use of “undergraduate academic reputation” scores based on the “expert opinion” of the 43.6 percent of college presidents, deans, and provosts who actually return the peer assessment documents to U.S. News. Each response rates a university’s academic reputation on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest score.

The academic reputation category itself counts for 20 percent of the total ranking, a hefty impact indeed. Since 2015, the mean scores for 99 national universities have risen by .14, from 3.67 to 3.81, or almost 4 percent. A rise or fall of .1 or .2 seems to have minimal positive impact on a university’s ranking, while a rise or fall of .3 more likely indicates a real shift in perception and ranking..

The most likely explanation for the minimal impact, in general, of reputation score increases of less than .3 is that changes in the U.S. News rankings methodology that includes measures for “social mobility” and “graduate indebtedness” have, in many cases, overridden or undermined the impact of marginally higher scores for academic reputation.

Only one university, Northeastern, rose by .4–yet the overall ranking for Northeastern fell from 42 to 44 between 2015 and 2023. The reputation score of 11 universities rose by .3: Notre Dame, NYU, Purdue, Boston University, Virginia Tech, Georgia, UMass Amherst, UConn, Utah, UC Santa Cruz, and Florida State. For this group, the ranking for 9 or the 11 universities rose, while the other 2 fell. Only Notre Dame and UConn dropped in the rankings as their reputation scores rose.

Below is a table showing the changes in academic reputation scores and overall rankings for 99 national universities, 2015-2023, sorted by academic reputation ranking in 2023.

Copy of Rsp vs rank 2023.xlsx

UniversityRep 2015Rep 2023changeRank 2015Rank 2023change
Stanford4.94.90734
MIT4.94.90725
Princeton4.84.80110
Harvard4.94.8-0.123-1
Yale4.84.80330
UC Berkeley4.74.7020200
Columbia4.64.70.1418-14
Chicago4.64.70.146-2
Johns Hopkins4.54.70.21275
Caltech4.64.601091
Cornell4.54.60.11517-2
Penn4.44.60.2871
Duke4.44.50.1810-2
Brown4.44.50.116133
Michigan4.44.4029254
UCLA4.24.40.223203
Northwestern4.34.40.113103
Dartmouth4.24.40.21112-1
Virginia4.34.302325-2
Carnegie Mellon4.24.30.125223
Georgia Tech4.24.30.13644-8
Vanderbilt4.14.30.216133
North Carolina4.14.20.130291
Rice44.20.219154
WUSTL44.20.21415-1
Notre Dame3.94.20.31418-4
Georgetown44.20.22122-1
UW Madison4.14.1047389
UT Austin44.10.1533815
NYU3.84.10.332257
Emory44.10.12022-2
Illinois4.14-0.142411
Washington 4404855-7
UC San Diego3.83.90.137343
Ohio St3.73.90.254495
UC Davis3.83.90.138380
USC3.93.901925-6
Purdue3.63.90.3625111
William & Mary3.73.90.23341-8
Maryland3.63.80.262557
UC Irvine3.63.80.242348
Florida3.63.80.2482919
Boston Univ3.53.80.342411
Boston College3.63.80.23136-5
Tufts3.63.80.22732-5
Minnesota3.63.70.169627
Penn State3.63.70.14877-29
Indiana3.63.70.176733
Colorado 3.53.70.28897-9
Texas A&M3.63.70.168671
Virginia Tech3.43.70.371629
Georgia 3.43.70.3634914
Case Western3.53.70.23844-6
Wake Forest3.53.70.22729-2
UC Santa Barbara3.53.60.140328
Michigan St3.53.60.185778
Arizona3.53.60.1120121-1
Pitt3.43.60.262620
Iowa3.53.60.17183-12
RPI3.43.60.24251-9
Brandeis3.53.60.13544-9
Northeastern3.23.60.44244-2
George Washington3.53.60.15162-11
Tulane3.43.60.253449
UMass Amherst3.23.50.376679
Oregon3.33.50.21061051
Rochester3.43.50.13336-3
Syracuse3.33.50.25862-4
Rutgers3.43.40705515
Stony Brook3.23.40.2887711
Kansas3.33.40.1106121-15
Connecticut3.13.40.35867-9
Col School of Mines3.33.40.18889-1
U of Miami3.23.40.24855-7
Clemson3.23.40.26277-15
Arizona St3.23.30.11291218
UC Santa Cruz33.30.385832
Utah33.30.312910524
NC State3.13.30.2957223
Florida St33.30.3955639
Delaware3.13.30.27689-13
Tennessee3.13.30.2106115-9
Auburn3.13.30.2103976
Baylor3.23.30.17177-6
American3.13.30.27172-1
Fordham3.23.30.15872-14
Lehigh3.33.304051-11
Iowa St3.23.20106127-21
Nebraska3.13.20.199151-52
Missouri3.33.2-0.199121-22
Brigham Young33.20.26289-27
Oklahoma33.20.2106127-21
Miami Oh3.13.20.176105-29
SMU33.20.25872-14
Alabama33.20.288137-49
UIC33.10.11499752
UC Riverside3.13.101138924
Washington St33.1138212-74
George Mason33.10.1128137-9
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