College rankings can be helpful to students searching for a college fit and for colleges hoping to improve their prestige. Each source of college rankings is based on specific criteria which make them more suitable for certain purposes than others. This article summarizes some of the best-known college rankings and suggests how they are best used by students and their families.
Top Choice Academic Value
Summary
These rankings attempt to identify american colleges with smart students, happy students, and a surprisingly high acceptance rate. The rankings are based on all objective statistics including college graduation rates and admission rates.
Best uses
Assessing academic fit. Help for students who want to find the “best” colleges that they may have a better than expected chance of admission.
Sources
Ranking homepage and methodology https://www.topchoicecollegeconsulting.com/rankings-2019
US News
Summary
These rankings attempt to identify the “best” colleges in America, are based on more than a dozen factors ranging from class size, faculty salaries, and alumni giving. Includes subjective factors including peer institution and high school counselor assessments.
Best uses
Assessing academic fit. Help for students who want to understand the relative prestige of colleges that they are considering applying to.
Sources
Ranking homepage https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges
Methodology https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings
Forbes
Summary
These rankings attempt to identify the “best” colleges in America, and are based on more than six factors ranging from alumni salaries and student debt. Includes subjective factors including niche.com professor quality and student life.
Best uses
Assessing academic and financial fit. Help for students who want to understand the relative prestige of colleges and which higher paid alumni with lower debt loads.
Sources
Ranking homepage https://www.forbes.com/top-colleges
Methodology https://www.forbes.com/sites/cartercoudriet/2018/08/20/top-colleges-2018-the-methodology
niche.com
Summary
These rankings attempt to identify the culture at colleges in America, and give each college a scorecard (letter grade) in twelve categories including dorms, campus food, and safety. In addition, niche ranks colleges in social categories like best greek life and most most liberal colleges. The scorecards and rankings are based on statistical factors as well as student questionnaire responses.
Best uses
Assessing social fit. Help for students who want to understand which colleges have a reputation for prevalent greek life or which colleges have conservative-leaning students.
Sources
Ranking homepage https://www.niche.com/colleges/rankings/
Methodology https://www.niche.com/colleges/rankings/methodology/
