New Methodology for College Rankings

US News has received criticism for utilizing wealth, standardized test scores, and surveys from college administrators in their college rankings. Due to the pandemic, several schools were test-optional or test-blind in their admissions process. Still, standardized testing is 5 percent of the final ranking. However, US News has tweaked its methodology for 2022 to reflect the rise of test-optional and test-blind admissions. US News stated, “if the combined percentage of the fall 2020 entering class submitting test scores was less than 50 percent of all new entrants, its combined SAT/ACT percentile distribution value used in the rankings was discounted by 15 percent.” 

The University of California System has turned to test-blind admissions. US News gave them a ranking based on their lowest test score. Test Blind schools differ from test-optional or test-flexible as the ACT and SAT scores are not available. 

Due to the minor changes in the methodology, the top colleges remained relativity the same from last year. Several were angered since many colleges and universities believe test scores should be removed from the ranking altogether. 

Forbes changed its methodology this year, which resulted in the University of California Berkeley as the top college in the country. This is the first year that a state university is in the number one spot. The most notable changes to the rankings were the addition of return on investment and a student satisfaction category. 

To read more about changes in college rankings, please click the link below:

https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2021/09/13/us-news-tweaks-its-methodology