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

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.

UNIVERSITYAvg Dept RankDept RankRep ScoreRep RankRep ScoreRep DifUS NewsRank Dif2020 Rank
NAME15 Disciplines 2018Ordinal2020202020152020 v 2015Rank 20202015-2020Soc Mobility
Harvard5.7164.914.9020186
Stanford1.9314.914.9061241
MIT2.7324.914.9034241
Princeton5.3854.914.80.110186
Yale10.9294.854.8030285
UC Berkeley3.224.764.7022-270
Columbia10.2384.764.60.131138
Caltech4.7144.764.60.112-2345
Johns Hopkins21.93194.764.50.2102241
Chicago11.67114.664.606-2335
Cornell13.79134.664.50.117-2224
Penn16.73154.664.40.262241
Duke20.23174.5134.40.110-2254
Brown27.62284.5134.40.1142224
Michigan9.474.5134.40.1254291
Northwestern17.86164.5134.30.294251
Dartmouth51.38574.4174.20.212-1303
UCLA10.8694.3184.20.120313
Carnegie Mellon27.73294.3184.20.1250303
Georgia Tech33.7374.3184.20.1297224
Vanderbilt35.57404.3184.10.217-1291
Virginia27.4274.2224.3-0.128-5328
Rice31.92334.22240.2172204
Georgetown53.75614.22240.224-3241
Notre Dame45.43474.2223.90.315-1322
North Carolina23.79214.1264.10291165
UW Madison12.93124.1264.10461297
WUSTL32.29344.12640.119-5381
Emory45.82494.12640.121-1200
UT Austin14.47144.12640.1485134
NYU25234313.80.2293115
Illinois20.07173.9324.1-0.248-6186
Washington 22.2203.9324-162-14176
USC35.27393.9323.9022-3147
UC Davis28.14303.9323.80.139-19
UC San Diego25.93243.9323.80.137021
William & Mary69363.8373.70.140-7354
Ohio St26.4253.8373.70.1540254
Purdue40.27413.8373.60.2575270
Tufts73.8783.8373.60.229-2328
UC Irvine32.53353.8373.60.23663
Florida48.67523.8373.60.2341434
Penn State27.27263.7433.60.157-9348
Maryland28.8313.7433.60.164-2322
Minnesota24.2223.7433.60.170-1251
Boston College50.27543.7433.60.137-6270
Texas A&M41.6423.7433.60.170-296
Indiana29.93323.7433.60.179-3303
Case Western72.91773.7433.50.240-2214
Boston Univ48.67523.7433.50.2402270
Colorado 33.2363.7433.50.2104-16359
Virginia Tech52.31603.7433.40.374-3322
Wake Forest98.75933.6533.50.1270360
Brandeis63.92683.6533.50.140-5138
UC Santa Barbara35.21383.6533.50.13469
Arizona43443.6533.50.11173195
Georgia 63653.6533.40.25013159
Tulane90.77893.6533.40.24013365
Pitt45.4463.6533.40.2575335
George Washington76.92833.5603.5070-19322
Iowa50.27543.5603.5084-13335
Michigan St42.13433.5603.50841241
RPI62623.5603.40.1402270
Rochester52593.5603.40.1294159
Col School of Mines74.83793.5603.30.2844303
U of Miami85.69873.5603.20.357-9270
Northeastern67.85723.5603.20.3402254
Rutgers43.87453.4683.4062859
Syracuse69.33753.4683.30.154490
Oregon51.43573.4683.30.11042214
Kansas63.87673.4683.30.1130-24377
UMass Amherst48.57513.4683.20.26412186
Arizona St45.67483.4683.20.211712147
Clemson89.6883.4683.20.270-8348
Lehigh106.67983.3763.3050-10270
Stony Brook46.46503.3763.20.191-324
Iowa St50.27543.3763.20.1121-15270
Connecticut69.47763.3763.10.264-6265
Auburn94.36923.3763.10.2107-4380
Tennessee76.77813.3763.10.21042138
SMU109.6993.37630.364-6360
Florida St68.8733.37630.3573880
Missouri76.87813.2833.3-0.1139-40354
Baylor103.09943.2833.2079-8297
American105.83963.2833.10.177-6176
Delaware76.54803.2833.10.191-15360
Miami Oh94.11913.2833.10.191-15369
NC State67.09703.2833.10.18411224
Nebraska67.33713.2833.10.1139-40303
Brigham Young80.22843.28330.277-15291
Utah60.87633.28330.210425186
Fordham105.83963.1923.2-0.174-16351
UC Riverside64.33693.1923.1091221
Alabama124.911003.19230.1153-65377
UC Santa Cruz59.71623.19230.18412
Drexel105953.19230.197-2270
Oklahoma83.4853.19230.1132-26328
Washington St84.5863.19230.1166-28176
George Mason93.67903.19230.1153-25125
UIC63.53663100301321714
MEAN SCORES/RANKS49.9083503.77247.713.6610.10256.96-2.51229.38