Every year, there are students who make the mistake of basing their decision to apply to certain colleges on ranking systems that they don’t really understand. The fact is that not all college ranking systems are created equal, and some may be quite biased. On the other hand, some sources are far more transparent with what goes into college ranks, so let’s take a look at a couple of popular ones.
- S. News – Every year, U.S. News releases its updated college rankings along with the criteria for the college ranking system. For example, this year, they released the 2024 weight alongside the 2023 weight, so you can know which categories are receiving more scrutiny. Also, they now have different criteria based on a school’s classification. This year, the top factors are peer assessment (20%), graduation rates (16-21% depending on the classification), and financial resources per student (8% – down from 10% last year).
- Forbes – Forbes provides another popular college ranking list, and they have recently released their updated college ranking criteria. Forbes uses way fewer factors to grade colleges, and the seven criteria are all weighted relatively equally, ranging from 10-20% each. The top factor is the salary of alumni (a significant factor when it comes to repaying student loans).
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