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Well, the wait is over, and the new US News Rankings are up. (Find them here.)

Any comments? What's with the new "Doctoral Universities" designation - it took me a while to find them, because I was looking for undergrad rankings and assumed (incorrectly) that the doctoral category was for PhD programs. Should the presence or absence of doctoral programs be the major dividing line when ranking undergrad schools?

By anonamom on Friday, September 07, 2001 - 12:22 pm: Edit

Did they replace regional LACs with comprehensive colleges?

By Ranker on Wednesday, September 12, 2001 - 08:41 pm: Edit

Who are the big winners this year? Who moved up the most in both universities and LACs? Likewise, who are the big losers?

By Domer97 on Thursday, October 11, 2001 - 06:22 pm: Edit

The big winner is US News... They sell a ton of magazines! J

By ThePrincipal on Saturday, October 13, 2001 - 12:10 pm: Edit

Domer, that's really the point... Not that US News doesn't work hard to try to get it right, but logic would suggest that schools should be lumped into broad categories, not thrown into a numerical ranking. It's the numeric rankings that generate sales, thoughd: Who's #1 this year, Who missed the cut for the top 25?

Tinkering with the formulas is also essential - if the list was too static, people wouldn't need to buy the magazine every year.

By Dadster on Monday, October 22, 2001 - 12:21 pm: Edit

You are probably right, TP. In reality, of course, colleges change very little from year to year. Rankings that change more dramatically from year to year are a lot more exciting. It gets people talking about them, and creates demand for the magazines.

By ThePrincipal on Saturday, November 03, 2001 - 10:51 am: Edit

Even those who complain about college rankings, though, end up going out and buying the U.S. News College Rankings issue. I'm glad that they are online now, I can see them without adding to the rankings revenue stream.

I think the US News rankings are like a bad movie - sometimes you feel compelled to watch just to see how bad it is.