Dive Brief:
- U.S. News & World Report unveiled its annual Best Colleges rankings on Tuesday, with Princeton University taking the top spot on the magazine’s national universities list for the fourth year in a row, while Williams College was named the top liberal arts college for the fifth straight year.
- Winners named in Best Value Schools categories included Harvard University, Amherst College, Villanova University, Mercer University, Drury University, Trinity University, Cooper Union, Alice Lloyd College, College of the Ozarks, and Texas Lutheran University.
- All told, U.S. News has about 55 rankings and listings in categories ranging from unranked specialty arts schools to top public schools to historically black colleges and universities ranking.
Dive Insight:
According to a Washington Post analysis of the last five years of the rankings, the largest liberal arts school gainers in the top 100 were St. John’s College of Annapolis, MD, and Santa Fe, NM, up to No. 56 from 123; Bennington College, to No. 89 from 122; and the College of the Atlantic, to No. 99 from 131. St. John’s jump was attributed to the school finally sending in its statistics to U.S News after years of refusing to participate and, apparently, the magazine using inaccurate data to fill the gap.
On the national university side, the largest gains in the top 100 were by Texas Christian University and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, both moving up 23 spots to a tie at No. 76, and Northeastern University, moving up 27 spots to No. 42.