Average and Year by Year U.S. News Rankings for 123 National Universities, 2017–2024. Big Changes!

Posted on September 23, 2023 by Honorsadmin

This is our annual summary of US News rankings of national universities across the most recent eight-year period. We have other posts and pages on this site with US News statistics going back to 1983. In all the years we have surveyed the rankings, the 2024 has brought the most dramatic changes. The main reason is a much greater emphasis on metrics of social mobility and related outcomes versus traditional metrics of test scores, class sizes, and institutional wealth.

Some critics of the rankings, and they are legion, claim that US News changes its methodology so frequently that year to year comparisons are almost meaningless. And it is certainly striking that the flagship universities of Kentucky, Alabama, and Nebraska could have fallen 73, 63, and 48 places respectively between 2017 and 2024. Yet the new rankings are a boost to many public universities, whose rankings as a whole have risen an average of four places since 2021 and almost two places since 2017.

Indeed, when compared to rankings for 2017, eleven public universities have gained at least 20 places, led by UC Riverside with a gain of 42 places. Rutgers, NC State, Stony Brook, and Oregon all rose 30 or more places.

Most complaints have come from private universities–and with reason. The average 2024 rankings for the 62 private universities in our continuing survey declined by a whopping 14 points since 2017 and by 8 points since last year. Although the most dramatic declines have occurred for private universities ranked out of the top 50 in most years, even elite institutions such as Chicago, Dartmouth, and Columbia have dropped 9, 7, and 7 points respectively during that timeframe.

“With rankings, sometimes you’re the windshield and sometimes you’re the bug,” consultant Teresa Valerio Parrot pithily explained to the influential site Inside Higher Ed (IHE). “I feel like we got to see a number of institutions who in the past have either been silent or have praised where they are in the rankings, and with this year’s methodology change suddenly have objections and grievances … that’s not really a great look.”

In the same piece, Christopher Newfield, a higher education scholar and the research director of the Independent Social Research Foundation in London, said that now “the product that’s being sold is social mobility. That’s an improvement over status and prestige. But neither of those things are about the intellectual, nonpecuniary benefits of a college education.”

Nothing other than a dramatic shift in methodology can explain a one-year drop of 18 points for Wake Forest, 29 points for Tulane, 26 points for Brigham Young, and 33 points for American.

The view here is that the most successful universities overall are those who combine a commitment to social mobility and academic excellence with sufficient resources to achieve both goals. Many elite private universities fall into this category and will continue to receive high rankings. Some private universities that have done well in the past will have to adjust to the new metrics, a difficult task if the resources are lacking.

As for public universities, the UC system has for years operated according to these principles and still rises in the rankings. Florida and North Carolina are notable for providing excellent academics at low cost. UT Austin, UW Madison, UIUC, UW Seattle, Georgia, Maryland, and Ohio State have had some ups and downs in the rankings but now seem to be operating pursuant to goals that also align well with the new metrics. For years we have criticized US News for its over-emphasis on wealth metrics. Now we say congratulations for developing a methodology with much better balance.

Below is the table showing the ranking changes from 2017 to 2024. Universities are listed in order of their 2024 rank.

US News 2016--2023	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	Avg Rank	Dif 2017-2024


Princeton	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0
MIT	7	5	3	3	4	2	2	2	3.5	5
Harvard	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	3	2.25	-1
Stanford	5	5	7	6	6	6	3	3	5.125	2
Yale	3	3	3	3	4	5	3	5	3.625	-2
Penn	8	8	8	6	8	8	7	6	7.375	2
Caltech	12	10	12	12	9	9	9	7	10	5
Duke	8	9	8	10	12	9	10	7	9.125	1
Johns Hopkins	10	11	10	10	9	9	7	9	9.375	1
Northwestern	12	11	10	9	9	9	10	9	9.875	3
Brown	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	9	13.25	5
Chicago	3	3	3	6	6	6	6	12	5.625	-9
Cornell	15	14	16	17	18	17	17	12	15.75	3
Columbia	5	5	3	3	3	2	18	12	6.375	-7
UCLA	24	21	19	20	20	20	20	15	19.875	9
UC Berkeley	20	21	22	22	22	21	20	15	20.375	5
Rice	15	14	16	17	16	17	15	17	15.875	-2
Dartmouth	11	11	12	12	13	13	12	18	12.75	-7
Vanderbilt	15	14	14	17	14	14	13	18	14.875	-3
Notre Dame	15	18	18	15	19	19	18	20	17.75	-5
Michigan	27	28	27	25	24	23	25	21	25	6
Georgetown	20	20	22	24	23	23	22	22	22	-2
North Carolina	30	30	30	29	28	28	29	22	28.25	8
Washington Univ	19	18	19	19	16	14	15	24	18	-5
Emory	20	21	22	21	21	20	22	24	21.375	-4
Carnegie Mellon	24	25	25	25	26	25	22	24	24.5	0
Virginia	24	25	25	28	26	25	25	24	25.25	0
USC	23	21	22	22	24	27	25	28	24	-5
Florida	50	42	35	34	30	28	29	28	34.5	22
UC San Diego	44	42	41	37	35	34	34	28	36.875	16
UC Davis	44	46	38	39	39	38	38	28	38.75	16
UT Austin	56	56	49	48	42	38	38	32	44.875	24
UC Irvine	39	42	33	36	35	36	34	33	36	6
Georgia Tech	34	34	35	29	35	38	44	33	35.25	1
NYU	36	30	30	29	30	28	25	35	30.375	1
UC Santa Barbara	37	37	30	34	30	28	32	35	32.875	2
UW Madison	44	46	49	46	42	42	38	35	42.75	9
Illinois	44	52	46	48	47	47	41	35	45	9
Boston College	31	32	38	37	35	36	36	39	35.5	-8
Tufts	27	29	27	29	30	28	32	40	30.25	-13
Washington	54	56	59	62	58	59	55	40	55.375	14
Rutgers	70	69	56	62	63	63	55	40	59.75	30
Boston Univ	39	37	42	40	42	42	41	43	40.75	-4
Ohio St	54	54	56	54	53	49	49	43	51.5	11
Purdue	60	56	56	57	53	49	51	43	53.125	17
Maryland	60	61	63	64	58	59	55	43	57.875	17
Wake Forest	27	27	27	27	28	28	29	47	30	-20
Rochester	32	34	33	29	34	34	36	47	34.875	-15
Georgia	56	54	46	50	47	48	49	47	49.625	9
Lehigh	44	46	53	50	49	49	51	47	48.625	-3
Virginia Tech	74	69	76	74	74	75	62	47	68.875	27
Texas A&M	74	69	66	70	66	68	67	47	65.875	27
William & Mary	32	32	38	40	39	38	41	53	39.125	-21
Case Western	37	37	42	40	42	42	44	53	42.125	-16
Northeastern	39	40	44	40	49	49	44	53	44.75	-14
Florida St	92	81	70	57	58	55	55	53	65.125	39
Minnesota	71	69	76	70	66	68	62	53	66.875	18
Connecticut	60	56	63	64	63	63	67	58	61.75	2
Stony Brook	96	97	80	91	88	93	77	58	85	38
Brandeis	34	34	35	40	42	42	44	60	41.375	-26
RPI	39	42	49	50	53	55	51	60	49.875	-21
NC State	92	81	80	84	80	79	72	60	78.5	32
Penn State	50	52	59	57	63	63	77	60	60.125	-10
Michigan St	82	81	85	84	80	83	77	60	79	22
U of Miami	44	46	53	57	49	55	55	67	53.25	-23
Syracuse	60	61	53	54	58	59	62	67	59.25	-7
Pitt	68	68	70	57	58	59	62	67	63.625	1
George Washington	56	56	63	70	66	63	62	67	62.875	-11
UMass Amherst	74	75	70	64	66	68	67	67	68.875	7
Tulane	39	40	44	40	41	42	44	73	45.375	-34
Indiana	86	90	89	79	76	68	72	73	79.125	13
Binghamton	86	87	80	79	88	83	83	73	82.375	13
Pepperdine	50	46	46	50	49	49	55	76	52.625	-26
Stevens Inst Tech	71	69	70	74	80	83	83	76	75.75	-5
UC Riverside	118	124	85	91	88	83	89	76	94.25	42
Col School of Mines	82	75	80	84	88	83	89	76	82.125	6
Univ at Buffalo	99	97	89	79	88	93	89	76	88.75	23
Delaware	79	81	89	91	97	93	89	76	86.875	3
WPI	60	61	59	64	66	63	67	82	65.25	-22
UC Santa Cruz	79	81	70	84	97	103	83	82	84.875	-3
Clemson	66	67	66	70	74	75	77	86	72.625	-20
Marquette	86	90	89	84	88	83	83	86	86.125	0
SMU	56	61	63	64	66	68	72	89	67.375	-33
Fordham	60	61	70	74	66	68	72	89	70	-29
Baylor	71	75	78	79	76	75	77	93	78	-22
Iowa	82	78	89	84	88	83	83	93	85	-11
Auburn	99	103	115	107	97	99	97	93	101.25	6
Drexel	111	97	124	132	133	127	105	93	115.25	18
TCU	82	78	80	97	80	83	89	98	85.875	-16
San Diego	86	90	85	91	88	93	97	98	91	-12
Oregon	129	115	115	117	103	117	105	98	112.375	31
Illinois Tech	111	120	129	139	124	122	127	98	121.25	13
Yeshiva	66	94	80	97	76	68	67	105	81.625	-39
American	71	69	78	77	76	79	72	105	78.375	-34
Colorado	96	94	106	97	103	103	97	105	100.125	-9
Saint Louis	103	103	102	104	103	99	105	105	103	-2
Tennessee	92	97	96	121	118	117	115	105	107.625	-13
Arizona St	99	103	89	104	112	103	121	105	104.5	-6
Brigham Young	68	61	63	77	80	79	89	115	79	-47
Howard	124	110	89	104	80	83	89	115	99.25	9	s
Arizona	124	124	106	117	97	103	105	115	111.375	9
Iowa St	103	103	96	117	124	122	127	115	113.375	-12
New Hampshire	124	120	129	139	143	127	137	115	129.25	9
Denver	86	87	96	97	80	93	105	124	96	-38
South Carolina	111	115	119	121	118	122	115	124	118.125	-13
Missouri	118	115	129	130	124	122	121	124	122.875	-6
Oklahoma	111	110	106	125	133	136	127	124	121.5	-13
Miami Oh	79	78	89	91	103	103	105	133	97.625	-54
Vermont	107	103	106	104	118	117	121	133	113.625	-26
Dayton	133	133	147	132	133	127	127	133	133.125	0
Clark	74	81	66	91	103	103	97	142	94.625	-68
Loyola Chicago	103	103	115	104	112	103	115	142	112.125	-39
Clarkson	96	94	102	97	133	103	127	142	111.75	-46
Pacific	111	124	129	139	133	136	151	142	133.125	-31
Kansas	129	124	102	117	124	127	121	151	124.375	-22
Michigan Tech	129	124	140	166	153	148	151	151	145.25	-22
Colorado St	135	133	147	153	160	148	151	151	147.25	-16
Kentucky	86	87	106	121	143	136	137	159	121.875	-73
Nebraska	111	124	127	132	133	127	151	159	133	-48
Alabama	107	103	106	125	143	148	137	170	129.875	-63
Catholic	118	124	136	147	153	148	176	178	147.5	-60
Arkansas	135	133	147	153	160	160	176	178	155.25	-43
Tulsa	103	110	129	153	143	148	137	195	139.75	-92
TOTAL AVG	62.5							68.7	65.06	-6.22

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

Posted on November 21, 2022 by Honorsadmin

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

University	Rep 2015	Rep 2023	change	Rank 2015	Rank 2023	change

Stanford	4.9	4.9	0	7	3	4
MIT	4.9	4.9	0	7	2	5
Princeton	4.8	4.8	0	1	1	0
Harvard	4.9	4.8	-0.1	2	3	-1
Yale	4.8	4.8	0	3	3	0
UC Berkeley	4.7	4.7	0	20	20	0
Columbia	4.6	4.7	0.1	4	18	-14
Chicago	4.6	4.7	0.1	4	6	-2
Johns Hopkins	4.5	4.7	0.2	12	7	5
Caltech	4.6	4.6	0	10	9	1
Cornell	4.5	4.6	0.1	15	17	-2
Penn	4.4	4.6	0.2	8	7	1
Duke	4.4	4.5	0.1	8	10	-2
Brown	4.4	4.5	0.1	16	13	3
Michigan	4.4	4.4	0	29	25	4
UCLA	4.2	4.4	0.2	23	20	3
Northwestern	4.3	4.4	0.1	13	10	3
Dartmouth	4.2	4.4	0.2	11	12	-1
Virginia	4.3	4.3	0	23	25	-2
Carnegie Mellon	4.2	4.3	0.1	25	22	3
Georgia Tech	4.2	4.3	0.1	36	44	-8
Vanderbilt	4.1	4.3	0.2	16	13	3
North Carolina	4.1	4.2	0.1	30	29	1
Rice	4	4.2	0.2	19	15	4
WUSTL	4	4.2	0.2	14	15	-1
Notre Dame	3.9	4.2	0.3	14	18	-4
Georgetown	4	4.2	0.2	21	22	-1
UW Madison	4.1	4.1	0	47	38	9
UT Austin	4	4.1	0.1	53	38	15
NYU	3.8	4.1	0.3	32	25	7
Emory	4	4.1	0.1	20	22	-2
Illinois	4.1	4	-0.1	42	41	1
Washington	4	4	0	48	55	-7
UC San Diego	3.8	3.9	0.1	37	34	3
Ohio St	3.7	3.9	0.2	54	49	5
UC Davis	3.8	3.9	0.1	38	38	0
USC	3.9	3.9	0	19	25	-6
Purdue	3.6	3.9	0.3	62	51	11
William & Mary	3.7	3.9	0.2	33	41	-8
Maryland	3.6	3.8	0.2	62	55	7
UC Irvine	3.6	3.8	0.2	42	34	8
Florida	3.6	3.8	0.2	48	29	19
Boston Univ	3.5	3.8	0.3	42	41	1
Boston College	3.6	3.8	0.2	31	36	-5
Tufts	3.6	3.8	0.2	27	32	-5
Minnesota	3.6	3.7	0.1	69	62	7
Penn State	3.6	3.7	0.1	48	77	-29
Indiana	3.6	3.7	0.1	76	73	3
Colorado	3.5	3.7	0.2	88	97	-9
Texas A&M	3.6	3.7	0.1	68	67	1
Virginia Tech	3.4	3.7	0.3	71	62	9
Georgia	3.4	3.7	0.3	63	49	14
Case Western	3.5	3.7	0.2	38	44	-6
Wake Forest	3.5	3.7	0.2	27	29	-2
UC Santa Barbara	3.5	3.6	0.1	40	32	8
Michigan St	3.5	3.6	0.1	85	77	8
Arizona	3.5	3.6	0.1	120	121	-1
Pitt	3.4	3.6	0.2	62	62	0
Iowa	3.5	3.6	0.1	71	83	-12
RPI	3.4	3.6	0.2	42	51	-9
Brandeis	3.5	3.6	0.1	35	44	-9
Northeastern	3.2	3.6	0.4	42	44	-2
George Washington	3.5	3.6	0.1	51	62	-11
Tulane	3.4	3.6	0.2	53	44	9
UMass Amherst	3.2	3.5	0.3	76	67	9
Oregon	3.3	3.5	0.2	106	105	1
Rochester	3.4	3.5	0.1	33	36	-3
Syracuse	3.3	3.5	0.2	58	62	-4
Rutgers	3.4	3.4	0	70	55	15
Stony Brook	3.2	3.4	0.2	88	77	11
Kansas	3.3	3.4	0.1	106	121	-15
Connecticut	3.1	3.4	0.3	58	67	-9
Col School of Mines	3.3	3.4	0.1	88	89	-1
U of Miami	3.2	3.4	0.2	48	55	-7
Clemson	3.2	3.4	0.2	62	77	-15
Arizona St	3.2	3.3	0.1	129	121	8
UC Santa Cruz	3	3.3	0.3	85	83	2
Utah	3	3.3	0.3	129	105	24
NC State	3.1	3.3	0.2	95	72	23
Florida St	3	3.3	0.3	95	56	39
Delaware	3.1	3.3	0.2	76	89	-13
Tennessee	3.1	3.3	0.2	106	115	-9
Auburn	3.1	3.3	0.2	103	97	6
Baylor	3.2	3.3	0.1	71	77	-6
American	3.1	3.3	0.2	71	72	-1
Fordham	3.2	3.3	0.1	58	72	-14
Lehigh	3.3	3.3	0	40	51	-11
Iowa St	3.2	3.2	0	106	127	-21
Nebraska	3.1	3.2	0.1	99	151	-52
Missouri	3.3	3.2	-0.1	99	121	-22
Brigham Young	3	3.2	0.2	62	89	-27
Oklahoma	3	3.2	0.2	106	127	-21
Miami Oh	3.1	3.2	0.1	76	105	-29
SMU	3	3.2	0.2	58	72	-14
Alabama	3	3.2	0.2	88	137	-49
UIC	3	3.1	0.1	149	97	52
UC Riverside	3.1	3.1	0	113	89	24
Washington St	3	3.1		138	212	-74
George Mason	3	3.1	0.1	128	137	-9

	3.66767676768	3.80707070707	0.139795918367

Average US News Rankings for 125 Universities, 2016–2023

Posted on September 12, 2022 by Honorsadmin

NOTE: This post will be updated within a few days to include the 8-year period 2017-2024, thus including the US News rankings released in September 2024.

Below is our annual update of US News average rankings across the most recent eight-year period. Our first effort, covering the years 2014-2021, showed that public university rankings as a whole declined by 4.4 percent during that timeframe, while the decline for private universities was slightly less at 4.3 percent.

This time around, public universities have made significant gains overall, reflecting in part the changes in US News methodology. The overall rankings for publics did decline, but only by 3.0 percent. Meanwhile, the overall rankings for private universities declined by 5.4 percent.

The table below does not include universities that moved into the national university category since 2014 or that were not rated among the top 125 in that category in 2014. But here is a list of those and their 2023 ranking.

Villanova, 51; Santa Clara, 55; Loyola Marymount, 77; Gonzaga, 83; Elon, 89; Illinois-Chicago, 97; NJIT, 97; South Florida UCF, 97; UC Merced, 97; RIT, 105; Utah, 105; Creighton, 115; Rutgers Newark, 115; and Temple, 121.

The new list has several dramatic changes, some of them making sense only if there were major adjustments or corrections to the data reported from the universities. For example, the ranking of Penn State was 47 in 2016 but 77 in 2023. The most dramatic improvement among publics was Florida State, which moved from 96 to 55 during the eight years. Undoubtedly, the biggest change among elite private institutions was the drop of Columbia from 4 to 18 across the same span of years. The decline came after accusations by a math professor that Columbia “fudged” numbers in previous years.

In the coming weeks we will also post our annual comparison of US News Rankings, academic reputation rankings, and departmental rankings.

US News 2016--2023	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	Avg Rank	Chg 2016
										to 2023

Princeton	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	0
MIT	7	7	5	3	3	4	2	2	4.125	5
Harvard	2	2	2	2	2	2	2	3	2.125	-1
Yale	3	3	3	3	3	4	5	3	3.375	0
Stanford	4	5	5	7	6	6	6	3	5.25	1
Chicago	4	3	3	3	6	6	6	6	4.625	-2
Penn	9	8	8	8	6	8	8	7	7.75	2
Johns Hopkins	10	10	11	10	10	9	9	7	9.5	3
Caltech	10	12	10	12	12	9	9	9	10.375	1
Northwestern	12	12	11	10	9	9	9	10	10.25	2
Duke	8	8	9	8	10	12	9	10	9.25	-2
Dartmouth	12	11	11	12	12	13	13	12	12	0
Brown	14	14	14	14	14	14	14	13	13.875	1
Vanderbilt	15	15	14	14	17	14	14	13	14.5	2
Washington Univ	15	19	18	19	19	16	14	15	16.875	0
Rice	18	15	14	16	17	16	17	15	16	3
Cornell	15	15	14	16	17	18	17	17	16.125	-2
Columbia	4	5	5	3	3	3	2	18	5.375	-14
Notre Dame	18	15	18	18	15	19	19	18	17.5	0
UCLA	23	24	21	19	20	20	20	20	20.875	3
UC Berkeley	20	20	21	22	22	22	21	20	21	0
Emory	21	20	21	22	21	21	20	22	21	-1
Georgetown	21	20	20	22	24	23	23	22	21.875	-1
Carnegie Mellon	23	24	25	25	25	26	25	22	24.375	1
Michigan	29	27	28	27	25	24	23	25	26	4
Virginia	26	24	25	25	28	26	25	25	25.5	1
USC	23	23	21	22	22	24	27	25	23.375	-2
NYU	32	36	30	30	29	30	28	25	30	7
Wake Forest	27	27	27	27	27	28	28	29	27.5	-2
North Carolina	30	30	30	30	29	28	28	29	29.25	1
Florida	47	50	42	35	34	30	28	29	36.875	18
Tufts	27	27	29	27	29	30	28	32	28.625	-5
UC Santa Barbara	37	37	37	30	34	30	28	32	33.125	5
UC San Diego	39	44	42	41	37	35	34	34	38.25	5
UC Irvine	39	39	42	33	36	35	36	34	36.75	5
Rochester	33	32	34	33	29	34	34	36	33.125	-3
Boston College	30	31	32	38	37	35	36	36	34.375	-6
UC Davis	41	44	46	38	39	39	38	38	40.375	3
UT Austin	52	56	56	49	48	42	38	38	47.375	14
UW Madison	41	44	46	49	46	42	42	38	43.5	3
William & Mary	34	32	32	38	40	39	38	41	36.75	-7
Boston Univ	41	39	37	42	40	42	42	41	40.5	0
Illinois	41	44	52	46	48	47	47	41	45.75	0
Georgia Tech	36	34	34	35	29	35	38	44	35.625	-8
Tulane	41	39	40	44	40	41	42	44	41.375	-3
Brandeis	34	34	34	35	40	42	42	44	38.125	-10
Case Western	37	37	37	42	40	42	42	44	40.125	-7
Northeastern	47	39	40	44	40	49	49	44	44	3
Georgia	61	56	54	46	50	47	48	49	51.375	12
Ohio St	52	54	54	56	54	53	49	49	52.625	3
Lehigh	47	44	46	53	50	49	49	51	48.625	-4
Purdue	61	60	56	56	57	53	49	51	55.375	10
RPI	41	39	42	49	50	53	55	51	47.5	-10
Pepperdine	52	50	46	46	50	49	49	55	49.625	-3
U of Miami	51	44	46	53	57	49	55	55	51.25	-4
Florida St	96	92	81	70	57	58	55	55	70.5	41
Washington	52	54	56	59	62	58	59	55	56.875	-3
Maryland	57	60	61	63	64	58	59	55	59.625	2
Rutgers	72	70	69	56	62	63	63	55	63.75	17
Syracuse	61	60	61	53	54	58	59	62	58.5	-1
Pitt	66	68	68	70	57	58	59	62	63.5	4
George Washington	57	56	56	63	70	66	63	62	61.625	-5
Minnesota	69	71	69	76	70	66	68	62	68.875	7
Virginia Tech	70	74	69	76	74	74	75	62	71.75	8
Connecticut	57	60	56	63	64	63	63	67	61.625	-10
WPI	57	60	61	59	64	66	63	67	62.125	-10
Texas A&M	70	74	69	66	70	66	68	67	68.75	3
UMass Amherst	75	74	75	70	64	66	68	67	69.875	8
Yeshiva	52	66	94	80	97	76	68	67	75	-15
SMU	61	56	61	63	64	66	68	72	63.875	-11
Fordham	66	60	61	70	74	66	68	72	67.125	-6
Indiana	75	86	90	89	79	76	68	72	79.375	3
American	72	71	69	78	77	76	79	72	74.25	0
NC State	89	92	81	80	84	80	79	72	82.125	17
Penn State	47	50	52	59	57	63	63	77	58.5	-30
Clemson	61	66	67	66	70	74	75	77	69.5	-16
Baylor	72	71	75	78	79	76	75	77	75.375	-5
Michigan St	75	82	81	85	84	80	83	77	80.875	-2
Stony Brook	89	96	97	80	91	88	93	77	88.875	12
Stevens Inst Tech	75	71	69	70	74	80	83	83	75.625	-8
Iowa	82	82	78	89	84	88	83	83	83.625	-1
Marquette	86	86	90	89	84	88	83	83	86.125	3
Binghamton	89	86	87	80	79	88	83	83	84.375	6
UC Santa Cruz	82	79	81	70	84	97	103	83	84.875	-1
Brigham Young	66	68	61	63	77	80	79	89	72.875	-23
TCU	82	82	78	80	97	80	83	89	83.875	-7
Howard	135	124	110	89	104	80	83	89	101.75	46
UC Riverside	121	118	124	85	91	88	83	89	99.875	32
Col School of Mines	75	82	75	80	84	88	83	89	82	-14
Univ at Buffalo	99	99	97	89	79	88	93	89	91.625	10
Delaware	75	79	81	89	91	97	93	89	86.75	-14
San Diego	89	86	90	85	91	88	93	97	89.875	-8
Auburn	102	99	103	115	107	97	99	97	102.375	5
Clark	75	74	81	66	91	103	103	97	86.25	-22
Colorado	96	96	94	106	97	103	103	97	99	-1
Denver	86	86	87	96	97	80	93	105	91.25	-19
Saint Louis	103	103	103	102	104	103	99	105	102.75	-2
Arizona	121	124	124	106	117	97	103	105	112.125	16
Miami Oh	82	79	78	89	91	103	103	105	91.25	-23
Oregon	129	129	115	115	117	103	117	105	116.25	24
Drexel	108	111	97	124	132	133	127	105	117.125	3
Loyola Chicago	103	103	103	115	104	112	103	115	107.25	-12
Tennessee	89	92	97	96	121	118	117	115	105.625	-26
South Carolina	108	111	115	119	121	118	122	115	116.125	-7
Arizona St	99	99	103	89	104	112	103	121	103.75	-22
Vermont	108	107	103	106	104	118	117	121	110.5	-13
Missouri	115	118	115	129	130	124	122	121	121.75	-6
Kansas	115	129	124	102	117	124	127	121	119.875	-6
Clarkson	99	96	94	102	97	133	103	127	106.375	-28
Iowa St	108	103	103	96	117	124	122	127	112.5	-19
Illinois Tech	103	111	120	129	139	124	122	127	121.875	-24
Dayton	129	133	133	147	132	133	127	127	132.625	2
Oklahoma	108	111	110	106	125	133	136	127	119.5	-19
New Hampshire	123	124	120	129	139	143	127	137	130.25	-14
Kentucky	86	86	87	106	121	143	136	137	112.75	-51
Tulsa	96	103	110	129	153	143	148	137	127.375	-41
Alabama	103	107	103	106	125	143	148	137	121.5	-34
Nebraska	108	111	124	127	132	133	127	151	126.625	-43
Pacific	103	111	124	129	139	133	136	151	128.25	-48
Michigan Tech	127	129	124	140	166	153	148	151	142.25	-24
Colorado St	129	135	133	147	153	160	148	151	144.5	-22
Catholic	123	118	124	136	147	153	148	176	140.625	-53
Arkansas	129	135	133	147	153	160	160	176	149.125	-47

Some New Honors College “Rankings” Have Appeared Elsewhere; Here’s Our Take

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Honorsadmin

By John Willingham, Editor

Recently, Google searches are listing two new sites that claim to rank public university honors programs and honors colleges. Their “rankings” in most instances bear a close resemblance to the ratings we have produced since 2012. Aside from the likelihood of extensive (unattributed) borrowing from our copyrighted work, the fact is that most of the data necessary to rank or rate these programs is not publicly available. We are the only site or organization in the country that does have access, gained only after many years of dialogue and collaboration with honors deans and directors across the nation. One wonders how these new rankings were developed. Or were they mostly “borrowed”?

Our collaborative process yields enormous amounts of data. For example, to calculate honors class sizes, we have to analyze about 10,000 honors classes for each addition. Much of the data required for this analysis is not available on honors sites or even on university-wide course schedules.

And still we do not “rank” programs. Typically, I have an opinion, based on data, about the best five to ten programs in the nation among those rated in a given edition. The data may show that one is “better” (a higher point total) than all the rest. And then I think about how I have weighted each of the 13 rating categories. If I were to change any of them, the ratings would change. All is driven by the methodology, and nobody’s methodology is perfect. It is a matter of judgment in the final analysis. It is not scientific in the truest sense, even with all the data involved. I can give you an exact figure for honors class sizes at Honors College A, but the rating proportion I assign to that exact figure is subjective.

If it’s not science, don’t present it as science. Ordinal rankings present themselves as science. But just imagine how the U.S. News rankings would change if all the institutional wealth metrics were removed or if selectivity did not count.

Thanks to the cooperation of honors deans and directors across the nation, we now receive for each rated profile 10-20 pages of documents, much of it hard data on class sections and course offerings. No one else obtains this level of unique data. Even by going online and reading every entry in the university’s course schedule one will not find the volume and specificity of data that we need for honors course analyses. That’s because honors programs offer mixed and contract sections that are not transparent in online course listings.

This brings us to the new rankings.

One lists “The 9 Best Honors Programs” in the nation. Here is the methodology:

“To put together our list, we evaluated the national honors college rankings from the past two years. We also evaluated honors colleges based on admissions requirements, curricular and extracurricular program offerings, emphasis on fostering an honors student community, financial aid opportunities, and unique or innovative approaches to the honors educational experience.” [Emphasis added.]

First, how does someone quantify “an emphasis on fostering an honors student community” or “innovative approaches to the honors educational experience”?

Second, I do not know of any “national honors college rankings,” although we announce the top 5-10 programs, in one alphabetical group, every other year. These programs are “top” only within the data set of rated programs for a given edition. No program is declared number one, or number three, or number ten for that data set, much less for the entire universe of honors programs. They are a instead placed in a group. Our refusal to anoint any program with a specific ranking number has, in fact, caused one prominent program to stop cooperating with us.

The “9 Best” site does not hesitate to do so: “Ranked #1 among honors colleges in the United States, Barrett College has a presence on ASU’s four campuses in Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, and Glendale, Arizona.” Although Barrett, under its longstanding Dean, Mark Jacobs, achieves excellent results year in and year out, I do not know of any recent ranking that specifically lists Barrett or any other honors program or college as number 1. It is true that Barrett has been in the highest (five mortarboard) group in all of our editions. But so has the South Carolina Honors College, Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College, the Plan II Honors Program at UT Austin, the University Honors Program at Kansas, and, since 2016, the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY. These are very different programs, ranging from extremely large (Barrett) to very small (UT Plan II.)

Other strong programs are at Clemson, Delaware, Georgia, Houston, and Ole Miss. Data from Maryland, Michigan, and North Carolina is no longer available, but in one or more previous editions, all received excellent ratings.

The “9 Best” site above also lists Penn State Schreyer, Clemson, and Rutgers Honors College among the best honors colleges, and adds UT Plan II, Kansas UHP, and the Echols Scholar program at UVA. Then in a “best bang for the buck” category, it lists CUNY Macaulay and the Alabama Honors College. (We have not included Echols after the 2014 edition because the new methodology in place since 2016 requires much more class data. Echols students can take almost any class at UVA, and it’s not possible to determine which ones those are at any given time.)

Another site lists “the top 50 honors programs and colleges”-a list which bears an uncanny resemblance to programs we have rated over the years. The list includes several programs that were not prominently mentioned until they appeared in one of our books: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Temple, Colorado State, and CUNY Macaulay, among them.

Here is the methodology behind this list:

“Below, we have compiled a list of the nation’s top honors colleges/programs. The selection was based on the following indicators of program quality.

The selectivity of the college/university (overall)
The selectivity of the honors program
Average honors class size
Number of honors classes
Availability of honors housing
Whether priority registration is offered to honors students

“Schools marked with an asterisk (*) rated especially high on several indicators and were ranked among the top 20 honors programs according to our methodology.”

All of the above information is in our publications. Further, “availability” of honors housing can be calculated only if one knows both the number of honors “beds” and the number of eligible honors students. One can know the true number of honors classes only if there is access to full spreadsheets, not just online listings, especially those limited to the honors homepage. And the true average class size likewise relies on extremely detailed data not available from online sources. Finally, some of the test scores listed on the site are incorrect and misleading.

Yes, I realize that U.S. News has several competitors in ranking colleges and universities. And, often, many of these rankings roughly correspond, especially at the most elite brand level. But…these competing ranking organizations all gather their own data, even while applying different methodologies, refrain from unseemly borrowing.

Here Are Honors Programs to Be Featured in 2020 Edition of Inside Honors

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Honorsadmin

The 2020 edition of Inside Honors was to have included in-depth ratings of 33 programs and somewhat shorter reviews of an additional seven programs. The COVID-19 issues facing universities will delay the next edition until October 2020 and has reduced the original number of programs that committed to participate. Most of the top-rated programs in previous editions will likewise be rated in 2020.

One positive: The new edition will include a new narrative section that summarizes each program and each profile will be longer, averaging 3,500 words.

The 33 programs that will now receive full ratings are below:

Appalachian State
Arizona
Arizona State
Auburn
Central Florida (UCF)
Clemson
College of Charleston
Colorado State
CUNY Macaulay
Delaware
Florida Atlantic
Georgia
Georgia State
Houston
Illinois
Kansas
Kentucky
Mississippi
Nebraska
Nevada Reno
UNC Wilmington
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Penn State
South Carolina
South Florida (USF)
UT Chattanooga
Texas Tech
UAB
UT Austin
Vermont
Virginia Commonwealth
Washington State
West Virginia

Below are the seven programs that will receive unrated reviews:

Idaho
Iowa
North Carolina Charlotte
Pitt
South Dakota St
Virginia Tech
Washington

U.S. News 2020: Dept Rank vs Academic Rep vs Overall Rank Plus Social Mobility

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Honorsadmin

The post is by editor John Willingham.

Yes, the title of this post is a mouthful. For years now, I have kept an updated list of the departmental rankings that U.S. News publishes so that I can add them to the biannual profiles I do of honors programs. When the 2020 rankings came out, I wanted to see whether there was any clear relationship between the departmental scores and the academic reputation scores. Then I compared the latest reputation scores with those published in 2015 to see how much had changed. Finally, the table below also includes changes in university rankings and the most recent rankings for social mobility.

(I would welcome comments on this post. Please email editor@publicuniversityhonors.com.)

It appears that the social mobility metric has had some impact, especially if the ranking is very strong, as in the case of many UC campuses and Florida institutions. There is no clear relationship between departmental scores and academic reputation scores. Departmental rankings do have a modest relationship to the overall U.S. News rankings, but there are many inconsistencies. Academic reputation scores do seem to show some “grade inflation” since 2015; often this is the case even when the U.S News ranking has dropped significantly.

The table below includes data for 100 public and private universities.

The cumulative rankings that I do for 15 academic disciplines requires some explanation. U.S. News only ranks graduate programs for most departments. Here are the disciplines for which I have cumulative departmental rankings, using the most recent data (2018): biological sciences; business (undergrad); chemistry, computer science; earth sciences; economics; education; engineering (undergrad);English; history; mathematics; physics; political science; psychology; and sociology.

Not every university has a ranked department in each of the 15 disciplines. I averaged departmental rankings for every university that had at least six ranked departments. For universities with, say, fewer than 12 ranked departments, the total ranking will be artificially high because only the best departments are ranked and I cannot include unranked departents. Most universities have 12-15 departments that are ranked, and so the overall average will be more useful for them. And some of the universities with a small number of ranked departments are specialized, such as Georgia Tech and Caltech. Clearly, even ranking only six or seven departments for those schools and getting a strong result is not misleading.

Universities with fewer than 10 departmental rankings: Colorado School of Mines; Georgia Tech; Miami Ohio; American; Brigham Young; Caltech; Dartmouth; Drexel; Fordham; Georgetown; and RPI.

It should be said that universities with relatively low departmental rankings can legitimately receive high rankings because of other meaningful factors, such as grad and retention rates and class size. Some excellent universities do not have an especially strong research focus or a lot of graduate programs. Dartmouth is one prominent example.

The universities below appear in rank order of their 2020 academic reputation, according to U.S. News.

UNIVERSITY	Avg Dept Rank	Dept Rank	Rep Score	Rep Rank	Rep Score	Rep Dif	US News	Rank Dif	2020 Rank
NAME	15 Disciplines 2018	Ordinal	2020	2020	2015	2020 v 2015	Rank 2020	2015-2020	Soc Mobility
Harvard	5.71	6	4.9	1	4.9	0	2	0	186
Stanford	1.93	1	4.9	1	4.9	0	6	1	241
MIT	2.73	2	4.9	1	4.9	0	3	4	241
Princeton	5.38	5	4.9	1	4.8	0.1	1	0	186
Yale	10.92	9	4.8	5	4.8	0	3	0	285
UC Berkeley	3.2	2	4.7	6	4.7	0	22	-2	70
Columbia	10.23	8	4.7	6	4.6	0.1	3	1	138
Caltech	4.71	4	4.7	6	4.6	0.1	12	-2	345
Johns Hopkins	21.93	19	4.7	6	4.5	0.2	10	2	241
Chicago	11.67	11	4.6	6	4.6	0	6	-2	335
Cornell	13.79	13	4.6	6	4.5	0.1	17	-2	224
Penn	16.73	15	4.6	6	4.4	0.2	6	2	241
Duke	20.23	17	4.5	13	4.4	0.1	10	-2	254
Brown	27.62	28	4.5	13	4.4	0.1	14	2	224
Michigan	9.4	7	4.5	13	4.4	0.1	25	4	291
Northwestern	17.86	16	4.5	13	4.3	0.2	9	4	251
Dartmouth	51.38	57	4.4	17	4.2	0.2	12	-1	303
UCLA	10.86	9	4.3	18	4.2	0.1	20	3	13
Carnegie Mellon	27.73	29	4.3	18	4.2	0.1	25	0	303
Georgia Tech	33.7	37	4.3	18	4.2	0.1	29	7	224
Vanderbilt	35.57	40	4.3	18	4.1	0.2	17	-1	291
Virginia	27.4	27	4.2	22	4.3	-0.1	28	-5	328
Rice	31.92	33	4.2	22	4	0.2	17	2	204
Georgetown	53.75	61	4.2	22	4	0.2	24	-3	241
Notre Dame	45.43	47	4.2	22	3.9	0.3	15	-1	322
North Carolina	23.79	21	4.1	26	4.1	0	29	1	165
UW Madison	12.93	12	4.1	26	4.1	0	46	1	297
WUSTL	32.29	34	4.1	26	4	0.1	19	-5	381
Emory	45.82	49	4.1	26	4	0.1	21	-1	200
UT Austin	14.47	14	4.1	26	4	0.1	48	5	134
NYU	25	23	4	31	3.8	0.2	29	3	115
Illinois	20.07	17	3.9	32	4.1	-0.2	48	-6	186
Washington	22.2	20	3.9	32	4	-1	62	-14	176
USC	35.27	39	3.9	32	3.9	0	22	-3	147
UC Davis	28.14	30	3.9	32	3.8	0.1	39	-1	9
UC San Diego	25.93	24	3.9	32	3.8	0.1	37	0	21
William & Mary	69	36	3.8	37	3.7	0.1	40	-7	354
Ohio St	26.4	25	3.8	37	3.7	0.1	54	0	254
Purdue	40.27	41	3.8	37	3.6	0.2	57	5	270
Tufts	73.8	78	3.8	37	3.6	0.2	29	-2	328
UC Irvine	32.53	35	3.8	37	3.6	0.2	36	6	3
Florida	48.67	52	3.8	37	3.6	0.2	34	14	34
Penn State	27.27	26	3.7	43	3.6	0.1	57	-9	348
Maryland	28.8	31	3.7	43	3.6	0.1	64	-2	322
Minnesota	24.2	22	3.7	43	3.6	0.1	70	-1	251
Boston College	50.27	54	3.7	43	3.6	0.1	37	-6	270
Texas A&M	41.6	42	3.7	43	3.6	0.1	70	-2	96
Indiana	29.93	32	3.7	43	3.6	0.1	79	-3	303
Case Western	72.91	77	3.7	43	3.5	0.2	40	-2	214
Boston Univ	48.67	52	3.7	43	3.5	0.2	40	2	270
Colorado	33.2	36	3.7	43	3.5	0.2	104	-16	359
Virginia Tech	52.31	60	3.7	43	3.4	0.3	74	-3	322
Wake Forest	98.75	93	3.6	53	3.5	0.1	27	0	360
Brandeis	63.92	68	3.6	53	3.5	0.1	40	-5	138
UC Santa Barbara	35.21	38	3.6	53	3.5	0.1	34	6	9
Arizona	43	44	3.6	53	3.5	0.1	117	3	195
Georgia	63	65	3.6	53	3.4	0.2	50	13	159
Tulane	90.77	89	3.6	53	3.4	0.2	40	13	365
Pitt	45.4	46	3.6	53	3.4	0.2	57	5	335
George Washington	76.92	83	3.5	60	3.5	0	70	-19	322
Iowa	50.27	54	3.5	60	3.5	0	84	-13	335
Michigan St	42.13	43	3.5	60	3.5	0	84	1	241
RPI	62	62	3.5	60	3.4	0.1	40	2	270
Rochester	52	59	3.5	60	3.4	0.1	29	4	159
Col School of Mines	74.83	79	3.5	60	3.3	0.2	84	4	303
U of Miami	85.69	87	3.5	60	3.2	0.3	57	-9	270
Northeastern	67.85	72	3.5	60	3.2	0.3	40	2	254
Rutgers	43.87	45	3.4	68	3.4	0	62	8	59
Syracuse	69.33	75	3.4	68	3.3	0.1	54	4	90
Oregon	51.43	57	3.4	68	3.3	0.1	104	2	214
Kansas	63.87	67	3.4	68	3.3	0.1	130	-24	377
UMass Amherst	48.57	51	3.4	68	3.2	0.2	64	12	186
Arizona St	45.67	48	3.4	68	3.2	0.2	117	12	147
Clemson	89.6	88	3.4	68	3.2	0.2	70	-8	348
Lehigh	106.67	98	3.3	76	3.3	0	50	-10	270
Stony Brook	46.46	50	3.3	76	3.2	0.1	91	-3	24
Iowa St	50.27	54	3.3	76	3.2	0.1	121	-15	270
Connecticut	69.47	76	3.3	76	3.1	0.2	64	-6	265
Auburn	94.36	92	3.3	76	3.1	0.2	107	-4	380
Tennessee	76.77	81	3.3	76	3.1	0.2	104	2	138
SMU	109.6	99	3.3	76	3	0.3	64	-6	360
Florida St	68.8	73	3.3	76	3	0.3	57	38	80
Missouri	76.87	81	3.2	83	3.3	-0.1	139	-40	354
Baylor	103.09	94	3.2	83	3.2	0	79	-8	297
American	105.83	96	3.2	83	3.1	0.1	77	-6	176
Delaware	76.54	80	3.2	83	3.1	0.1	91	-15	360
Miami Oh	94.11	91	3.2	83	3.1	0.1	91	-15	369
NC State	67.09	70	3.2	83	3.1	0.1	84	11	224
Nebraska	67.33	71	3.2	83	3.1	0.1	139	-40	303
Brigham Young	80.22	84	3.2	83	3	0.2	77	-15	291
Utah	60.87	63	3.2	83	3	0.2	104	25	186
Fordham	105.83	96	3.1	92	3.2	-0.1	74	-16	351
UC Riverside	64.33	69	3.1	92	3.1	0	91	22	1
Alabama	124.91	100	3.1	92	3	0.1	153	-65	377
UC Santa Cruz	59.71	62	3.1	92	3	0.1	84	1	2
Drexel	105	95	3.1	92	3	0.1	97	-2	270
Oklahoma	83.4	85	3.1	92	3	0.1	132	-26	328
Washington St	84.5	86	3.1	92	3	0.1	166	-28	176
George Mason	93.67	90	3.1	92	3	0.1	153	-25	125
UIC	63.53	66	3	100	3	0	132	17	14

MEAN SCORES/RANKS	49.9083	50	3.772	47.71	3.661	0.102	56.96	-2.51	229.38

Academic Reputation Rankings for 155 National Universities (and What That Means for Honors)

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Honorsadmin

Editor’s Note: We hope to update this post before the end of September 2019. The list appears after the introductory section. The list was current as of September 25, 2018.

In a previous post, Based on Academic Reputation Alone, Publics Would Be Higher in U.S. News Rankings, we write that many public universities have a reputation in the academic community that is much higher than their overall ranking by U.S. News. In this post, we will summarize the reasons that prospective honors students and their parents might consider paying more attention to academic reputation than to other factors in the oft-cited rankings. The list also facilitates comparisons of public and private universities.

First, these are factors to consider if the state university’s academic reputation is much stronger than its overall ranking:

1. The overall rankings penalize public universities for their typically larger class sizes, but the average honors class size in our most recent study of honors programs is 24.9 students, much smaller than the average class size for the universities as a whole. Many of these honors classes are lower-division, where the preponderance of large classes is often the norm. First-year honors seminars and classes for honors-only students average 17.5 students per section. Result: the relatively poor rating the whole university might receive for class size is offset for honors students.

2. The overall rankings hit some public universities hard for having relatively low retention and graduation percentages, but freshmen retention rates in honors programs are in the 90% range and higher; meanwhile six-year grad rates for honors entrants average 87%–much higher than the average rates for the universities as a whole. Result: the lower rates for the universities as a whole are offset for honors students.

3. All public universities suffer in the overall rankings because U.S. News assigns ranking points for both the wealth of the university as a whole and for the impact that wealth has on professors’ salaries, smaller class sizes, etc. This is a double whammy in its consideration of inputs and outputs separately; only the outputs should be rated. Result: the outputs for class size (see above) are offset for honors students, and the wealth of the university as an input should not be considered in the first place.

4. For highly-qualified students interested in graduate or professional school, academic reputation and the ability to work with outstanding research faculty are big advantages. Honors students have enhanced opportunities to work with outstanding faculty members even in large research universities, many of which are likely to have strong departmental rankings in the student’s subject area. Result: honors students are not penalized for the research focus of public research universities; instead, they benefit from it.

5. Many wealthy private elites are generous in funding all, or most, need-based aid, but increasingly offer little or no merit aid. This means that families might receive all the need-based aid they “deserve” according to a federal or institutional calculation and still face annual college costs of $16,000 to $50,000. On the other hand, national scholars and other highly-qualified students can still receive significant merit aid at most public universities. Result: if a public university has an academic reputation equal to that of a wealthy private elite, an honors student could be better off financially and not suffer academically in a public honors program.

But…what if the academic reputation of the public university is lower than that of a private school under consideration? In this case, the public honors option should offer the following offsets:

1.The net cost advantage of the public university, including merit aid, probably needs to be significant.

2. It is extremely important to evaluate the specific components of the honors program to determine if it provides a major “value-added” advantage–is it, relatively, better than the university as a whole. Often, the answer will be yes. To determine how much better, look at the academic disciplines covered by the honors program, the actual class sizes, retention and graduation rates, research opportunities, and even honors housing and perks, such as priority registration.

The rankings below are on a 5.0 scale, and there are many ties. We have included national universities with reputations rankings between 2.7 and 4.9.

University	Acad Rep	Ranking

Princeton	4.9	1
Harvard	4.9	1
Stanford	4.9	1
MIT	4.9	1
Yale	4.7	5
Columbia	4.7	5
Caltech	4.7	5
UC Berkeley	4.7	5
Chicago	4.6	9
Johns Hopkins	4.6	9
Cornell	4.6	9
Penn	4.5	12
Duke	4.5	12
Northwestern	4.4	14
Brown	4.4	14
Michigan	4.4	14
Dartmouth	4.3	17
Carnegie Mellon	4.3	17
UCLA	4.3	17
Georgia Tech	4.3	17
Vanderbilt	4.2	21
Virginia	4.2	21
Washington Univ	4.1	23
Rice	4.1	23
Notre Dame	4.1	23
Emory	4.1	23
Georgetown	4.1	23
North Carolina	4.1	23
UT Austin	4.1	23
USC	4	30
UW Madison	4	30
NYU	3.9	32
UC Davis	3.9	32
Illinois	3.9	32
Washington	3.9	32
William & Mary	3.8	36
UC San Diego	3.8	36
Ohio St	3.8	36
Purdue	3.8	36
Tufts	3.7	40
Case Western	3.7	40
UC Irvine	3.7	40
Penn State	3.7	40
Florida	3.7	40
Maryland	3.7	40
Minnesota	3.7	40
Wake Forest	3.6	47
Boston College	3.6	47
Brandeis	3.6	47
Boston Univ	3.6	47
UC Santa Barbara	3.6	47
Georgia	3.6	47
Texas A&M	3.6	47
Indiana	3.6	47
Colorado	3.6	47
Arizona	3.6	47
RPI	3.5	57
Tulane	3.5	57
George Washington	3.5	57
Pitt	3.5	57
Virginia Tech	3.5	57
Iowa	3.5	57
Michigan St	3.5	57
Rochester	3.4	64
U of Miami	3.4	64
Northeastern	3.4	64
Rutgers	3.4	64
Col School of Mines	3.4	64
UMass Amherst	3.4	64
Arizona St	3.4	64
Pepperdine	3.3	71
Syracuse	3.3	71
RIT	3.3	71
Connecticut	3.3	71
Clemson	3.3	71
Auburn	3.3	71
Stony Brook	3.3	71
Iowa St	3.3	71
Oregon	3.3	71
Kansas	3.3	71
Lehigh	3.2	81
Villanova	3.2	81
SMU	3.2	81
American	3.2	81
Delaware	3.2	81
Miami Oh	3.2	81
Alabama	3.2	81
Florida St	3.2	81
NC State	3.2	81
Missouri	3.2	81
Tennessee	3.2	81
Fordham	3.1	92
Brigham Young	3.1	92
Baylor	3.1	92
Pacific	3.1	92
Drexel	3.1	92
UC Santa Cruz	3.1	92
Oklahoma	3.1	92
Nebraska	3.1	92
South Carolina	3.1	92
UC Riverside	3.1	92
Kentucky	3.1	92
George Mason	3.1	92
Utah	3.1	92
WPI	3	105
Marquette	3	105
Loyola Chicago	3	105
Howard	3	105
Binghamton	3	105
Vermont	3	105
UI Chicago	3	105
Univ at Buffalo	3	105
Colorado St	3	105
Temple	3	105
Kansas St	3	105
Clark	2.9	116
Denver	2.9	116
San Diego	2.9	116
DePaul	2.9	116
St. Louis	2.9	116
New Hampshire	2.9	116
Arkansas	2.9	116
Mississippi	2.9	116
San Diego St	2.9	116
Seton Hall	2.9	116
LSU	2.9	116
Yeshiva	2.8	127
Stevens Inst Tech	2.8	127
New School	2.8	127
Hofstra	2.8	127
TCU	2.8	127
St. John’s	2.8	127
Illinois Tech	2.8	127
Texas Tech	2.8	127
TCU	2.8	127
UAB	2.8	127
USF	2.8	127
VCU	2.8	127
UT Dallas	2.8	127
New Mexico	2.8	127
Univ at Albany	2.8	127
UMBC	2.8	127
Cincinnati	2.8	127
URI	2.8	127
Tulsa	2.7	145
Catholic	2.7	145
Clarkson	2.7	145
Michigan Tech	2.7	145
UCF	2.7	145
Georgia State	2.7	145
NJIT	2.7	145
Idaho	2.7	145
UNC Charlotte	2.7	145
UC Merced	2.7	145
Hawaii Manoa	2.7	145

Changes in Dept Rankings 2014-2018

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Honorsadmin

In other posts and pages we compare the public and private university academic departmental rankings and list those along with U.S. News overall rankings for the universities. It is often the case that a university’s overall ranking is sharply at odds with its departmental rankings.

In this post we will list the changes in the aggregate academic department rankings for 61 public and private universities during the 2014–2018 time frame. In doing so we hope to give readers some idea whether a given university is trending up or down in the reputation of its academic offerings. A high aggregate ranking indicates that a student could have more options for a major or have the ability to change from one highly-ranked major to another that is also strong. Strong departments in public universities are especially important to honors students because they can take better advantage of the strong department via mentoring and smaller classes.

Academic departments are ranking by university academicians and administrators across the nation. Like any other rankings based on reputation, these are inherently subjective. On the other hand, few individuals are more keenly aware of the personnel changes in their professions or disciplines than members of the academy, whose careers often rely on their own recognized accomplishments, usually by means of publishing or patenting their work.

Our own approach is subjective in that we have chosen to rank only 15 academic disciplines, and most are ranked only at the graduate level. These are biology; business (undergrad); chemistry; computer science; earth sciences; economics; education; engineering (undergrad); English; history; mathematics; physics; political science; psychology; and sociology.

Not every university has ranked programs in all 15 disciplines. In such cases, we only count the ranked disciplines, and the average is based only on those; in other words, their is no penalty if a university does not offer, say, engineering.

In rare cases, a university did not have a ranked department in 2014 but did in 2018. In the list below, the rankings for Emory and Georgia Tech only include departments that were ranked in both years. For example, the history department at Georgia Tech broke into the rankings in 2018 at number 114; this was good in a sense, but the ranking, not present in 2014, had a negative impact.

There are four other special cases. We did not begin tracking Boston College and the University of Rochester until recently, so we do not have a 2014 aggregate ranking for their departments. But because their current aggregate ranking is among the top 60, we included them in the 2018 column. NYU, Carnegie Mellon, and Boston University have been tracked since 2016, so their rankings cover only a two-year period.

Although many universities below had meaningful changes in the aggregate departmental rankings (+2.0/-2.0) during the period, the mean change was only .414. Example: University A had an aggregate departmental ranking of 24.62 in 2018 (very high) but increased only .22 over the 2014 ranking of 24.40.

But University B had an aggregate ranking of 53.65 in 2014 but improved to 49.86 in 2018, a significant change.

The universities below are listed in order of their 2018 aggregate department ranking. Those with an improvement of 2.0 or greater are in bold; those with a decline of 2.0 or greater are in italics.

University	2013-14	2018-19	Chg + or –

Stanford	2.71	1.93	0.78
MIT	4.58	2.73	1.85
UC Berkeley	3.13	3.20	-0.07
Caltech	5.63	4.71	0.92
Princeton	5.77	5.38	0.39
Harvard	5.57	5.71	-0.14
Michigan	9.47	9.40	0.07
Columbia	10.85	10.23	0.62
UCLA	12.86	10.86	2.00
Yale	12.00	10.92	1.08
Chicago	11.92	11.67	0.25
Wisconsin	12.73	12.93	-0.20
Cornell	11.64	13.79	-2.15
UT-Austin	14.27	14.47	-0.20
Penn	18.53	16.73	1.80
Northwestern	19.00	17.86	1.14
Illinois	19.33	20.07	-0.74
Duke	22.38	20.23	2.15
Johns Hopkins	19.36	21.93	-2.57
Washington	21.67	22.20	-0.53
North Carolina	25.80	23.79	2.01
Minnesota	23.07	24.20	-1.13
NYU*	27.13	25.00	2.13
Georgia Tech	32.78	25.40	7.38
UCSD	23.29	25.93	-2.64
Ohio State	25.47	26.40	-0.93
Penn State	25.93	27.27	-1.34
Virginia	32.47	27.40	5.07
Brown	27.08	27.62	-0.54
Carnegie Mellon*	26.55	27.73	-1.18
UC Davis	30.57	28.14	2.43
Maryland	27.40	28.80	-1.40
Indiana	29.07	29.93	-0.86
Rice	33.83	31.92	1.91
WUSTL	29.08	32.29	-3.21
UC Irvine	34.31	32.53	1.78
Colorado	37.00	33.20	3.80
UCSB	35.64	35.21	0.43
USC	37.73	35.27	2.46
Vanderbilt	33.29	35.57	-2.28
Emory	33.00	38.86	-5.86
Purdue	40.33	40.27	0.06
Texas A&M	43.80	41.60	2.20
Michigan State	43.20	42.13	1.07
Arizona	38.20	43.00	-4.80
Rutgers New Bruns	43.87	43.87	0.00
Pitt	46.00	45.40	0.60
Notre Dame	52.23	45.43	6.80
Arizona State	47.27	45.67	1.60
Stony Brook SUNY	47.08	46.46	0.62
Massachusetts	52.14	48.67	3.47
Florida	44.00	48.57	-4.57
Boston University*	50.20	48.67	1.53
Boston College	no data	50.27
Iowa	46.93	50.27	-3.34
Oregon	49.36	51.21	-1.85
Dartmouth	48.86	51.38	-2.52
Rochester	no data	52.00
Virginia Tech	57.58	52.31	5.27
Georgetown	59.33	53.75	5.58
Illinois Chicago	58.07	59.80	-1.73

Best Undergrad Business Programs, by Specialty, Public and Private

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Honorsadmin

Editor’s note: Updated September 26, 2019. This list is from US News (2019) and we post it here for convenience and for comparison with the list of best overall business programs here.

Accounting

1. UT Austin
2. Illinois, Brigham Young
4. Michigan
5. Penn
6. Indiana
7. Notre Dame, USC
9. NYU
10. Ohio State
11. Florida
12. Texas A&M
13. Georgia
14. UC Berkeley
15. Creighton
16. UNC-Chapel Hill
17. St. Joseph’s
18. Loyola Marymount
19. Michigan State, Penn State, Washington, Wake Forest
23. Arizona State, Gonzaga, Seattle, Virginia, UW Madison
28. Bentley, Miami Oh, Saint Louis
31. Boston College, MIT

Entrepreneurship

1. Boston College
2. MIT
3. Indiana
4. UC Berkeley, Michigan, UNC-Chapel Hill
7. Penn
8. UT Austin
9. USC
10. Arizona
11. Loyola Marymount, Xavier
13. Boston College, Houston
15. Baylor, Syracuse, Utah
18. Brigham Young, Saint Louis
20. Carnegie Mellon, Florida, Maryland
23. Arizona State, Santa Clara, NYU, San Francisco
27. Fordham
28. Georgetown, Northeastern
30. Georgia Tech

Finance

1. Penn
2. NYU
3. MIT
4. Michigan
5. UT Austin
6. UC Berkeley
7. Indiana
8. Carnegie Mellon
9. Boston College
10. Virginia
11. UNC-Chapel Hill
12. Ohio State
13. Cornell, Georgetown
15. Fordham, Notre Dame
17. Creighton
18. USC, WUSTL
20. Loyola Chicago, Seattle, St.Joseph’s, Xavier
24. Loyola Maryland, Marquette, UW Madison
27. Arizona State, Fairfield
29. Babson, Emory
31. Florida, Illinois, Washington

Insurance

1. Georgia
2. UW Madison
3. Georgia State
4. Temple
5. Florida State, Penn
7. Penn State, UT Austin
9. Illinois State
10. Penn State, Illinois
12. St. John’s

International Business

1. South Carolina
2. NYU
3. Georgetown
4. UC Berkeley
5. Penn
6. Florida International, George Washington
8. Fordham, Northeastern, Michigan
11. Saint Louis
12. USC
13. San Diego State
14. American
15. Arizona State, Temple, Washington State
18. Hawaii Manoa
19. UT Austin
20. Brigham Young, Missouri St. Louis
22. Indiana, Miami Fl, Virginia
25. Bryant, UNC-Chapel Hill, Oklahoma
28. Michigan State

Management

1. Michigan
2. Penn
3. UC Berkeley
4. UNC Chapel Hill
5. Virginia
6. Indiana, MIT, NYU
9. UT Austin
10. Arizona State
11. Babson, USC
13. Texas A&M
14. Michigan State
15. Maryland
16. Illinois
17. Ohio State
18. Emory, Notre Dame
20. Cornell, Penn State, Detroit Mercy
23. Minnesota
24. Rockhurst, Washington
26. Babson, Georgetown
28. Carnegie Mellon
29. WUSTL
30. UW Madison

Management Information Systems

1. MIT
2. Carnegie Mellon
3. Arizona
4. UT Austin
5. Minnesota
6. Georgia Tech, Indiana
8. Maryland
9. Georgia State
10. NYU
11. Arizona State
12. Penn
13. Temple
14. Michigan
15. UT Dallas
16. Loyola Chicago, Georgia
18. LeMoyne, Santa Clara
20. Michigan State, St. Joseph’s, UNC-Chapel Hill
23. Creighton, Fairfield
25. Clemson, Ohio State, Arkansas
28. Cornell, Purdue, Illinois, Xavier Oh

Marketing

1. Michigan
2. Penn
3. NYU
4. UT Austin
5. UNC-Chapel Hill
6. UC Berkeley
7. Indiana
8. Virginia
9. UW Madison
10. St. Joseph’s
11. USC
12. Notre Dame
13. Loyola Marymount
14. Florida
15. Fordham
16. Penn State
17. Arizona State, Ohio State, Illinois
20. Cornell, Fairfield
22. MIT
23. Emory, Maryland
25. Texas A&M, Washington
27. Boston College, San Francisco
29. Babson, LeMoyne, Minnesota

Production/Operation Management

1. MIT
2. Penn
3. Carnegie Mellon
4. Michigan
5. Purdue
6. UC Berkeley, North Carolina Chapel Hill
8. Michigan State
9. UT Austin
10. Ohio State
11. Georgia Tech
12. Penn State
13. Indiana
14. NYU
15. Illinois, Santa Clara, Minnesota, WUSTL

Quantitative Analysis

1. MIT
2. Carnegie Mellon
3. Penn
4. UC Berkeley
5. NYU
6. Georgia Tech, Purdue, Michigan
9. Rockhurst, UT Austin
11. Cornell
12. Ohio State
13. Loyola Chicago, North Carolina Chapel Hill

Real Estate

1. Penn
2. UC Berkeley
3. UW Madison
4. NYU
5. Georgia
6. UT Austin
7. USC
8. Florida
9. Marquette
10. Cornell
11. Florida State
12. North Carolina Chapel Hill
13. Georgia State, Penn State
15. Michigan

Supply Chain Management/Logistics

1. Michigan State
2. MIT
3. Tennessee
4. Arizona State, Penn State
6. Ohio State
7. Michigan
8. Carnegie Mellon
9. UT Austin
10. Purdue
11. Penn
12. Maryland
13. Georgia Tech
14. Marquette
15. Arkansas, UC Berkeley
17. Clemson, Illinois
19. Iowa State, UW Madison

Best Undergrad Engineering Programs, by Specialty, Public and Private

Posted on December 29, 2017 by Honorsadmin

Editor’s note: Update September 26, 2018. This listing is from the most recent U.S. News rankings. We list them here on one page for convenience and for easy comparison with the overall engineering rankings here.

Aerospace

1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. Caltech
4. Michigan
5. Purdue
6. Stanford
7. Illinois
8. UT Austin
9. Texas A&M, Colorado
11. Embry-Riddle
12. Maryland
13. Virginia Tech
14. Princeton
15. Ohio State
16. Penn State, UCLA
18. UC Berkeley, Washington

Biological/Agricultural

1. Purdue
2. Texas A&M
3. Iowa State
4. UC Davis
5. Cornell, Illinois
7. Michigan State, Ohio State
9. Virginia Tech
10. NC State, Penn State
12. Florida

Biomedical

1. Johns Hopkins
2. MIT
3. Georgia Tech
4. Duke
5. Stanford
6. UC San Diego
7. UC Berkeley
8. Rice
9. Michigan
10. Penn
11. Washington
12. Boston University, Northwestern
14. Case Western, UT Austin
16. Columbia, Cornell
18. Pitt, WUSTL
18. Vanderbilt, WUSTL
20. Caltech, Harvard
22. Purdue, UCLA
24. Virginia

Chemical

1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. UC Berkeley
4. UT Austin
5. Caltech
6. Stanford
7. Michigan
8. Minnesota
9. Delaware, UW Madison
11. Princeton
12. Illinois
13. Cornell
14. Carnegie Mellon, Purdue
16. Northwestern
17. UC Santa Barbara
18. NC State
19. Penn State, Penn

Civil

1. UC Berkeley
2. Georgia Tech
3. Illinois
4. UT Austin
5. Purdue
6. Michigan
7. MIT, Stanford
9. Virginia Tech
10. Cornell, Texas A&M
12. Carnegie Mellon
13. UC Davis
14. Penn State
15. UW Madison
16. Caltech
17. Columbia, Lehigh
19. NC State
20. Northwestern, UCLA, Florida, Minnesota

Computer

1. Carnegie Mellon
2. MIT
3. Stanford
4. UC Berkeley
5. Georgia Tech
6. Michigan
7. Illinois
8. Cornell
9. UT Austin
10. Purdue, Washington
12. Princeton
13. UCLA
14. UC San Diego
15. UW Madison
16. Columbia, Ohio State
18. Texas A&M
19. Virginia Tech
20. Arizona State, Duke, Harvard
23. Penn State, Rice, Maryland, Penn

Electrical

1. MIT
2. UC Berkeley
3. Stanford
4. Georgia Tech
5. Illinois
6. Caltech
7. Michigan
8. Cornell
9. Carnegie Mellon
10. Purdue, UT Austin
12. Princeton, UCLA
14. UC San Diego
15. UW Madison
16. Columbia, Virginia Tech
18. Rice
19. UC Santa Barbara
20. Texas A&M

Environmental

1. Stanford
2. UC Berkeley
3. Illinois
4. Georgia Tech
5. UT Austin
6. MIT
7. Carnegie Mellon, Michigan
9. Cornell, Virginia Tech
11. Johns Hopkins
12. Purdue, Colorado
14. Duke
15. Princeton
16. UC Davis
17. Penn State, UW Madison
19. Caltech
20. Minnesota, Washington

Industrial, Manufacturing

1. Georgia Tech
2. Michigan
3. Purdue
4. UC Berkeley
5. Stanford
6. Virginia Tech
7. Northwestern
8. Cornell
9. Penn State, UW Madison
11. Texas A&M
12. NC State
13. Columbia
14. Ohio State, Illinois
16. USC

Materials

1. MIT
2. Michigan
3. Georgia Tech
4. Stanford
5. Northwestern, Illinois
7. UC Berkeley
8. Cornell, Caltech
10. UC Santa Barbara
11. Carnegie Mellon, Penn State
13. Purdue
14. Ohio State
15. UW Madison
16. Penn
17. Florida
18. Rice
19. NC State
20. Harvard, UT Austin
22. Minnesota

Mechanical

1. MIT
2. Georgia Tech
3. Stanford
4. UC Berkeley
5. Michigan
6. Caltech
7. Illinois
8. Purdue
9. Cornell
10. Carnegie Mellon
11. UT Austin
12. Northwestern
13. Princeton, Texas A&M
15. Virginia Tech
16. UCLA
17. Columbia, Penn State
19. UW Madison
20. Ohio State
21. Johns Hopkins
22. Penn
23. Duke, Rice
25. Brown, UC San Diego, Maryland

Petroleum

1. UT Austin
2. Texas A&M
3. Penn State

Public University Honors

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Category Archives: National Rankings

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