In a bit of a surprise for many academics, Harvard University has re-taken the number one slot in the college rankings of U.S. News and World Report. Princeton fell to the second position followed by Yale, MIT and Stanford. The rankings of the top ten universities and liberal arts colleges are below.
This is the first time that Harvard has been ranked as number one in 12 years.
Harvard appears to have focused on its greatest vulnerability in past years: class size. The percentage of students in classes under 20 students rose from 69 percent to 75 percent since last year’s report, while the percentage in classes bigger than 50 fell from 13 percent to 9 percent.
The magazine also includes a new “Up and Comers” — featuring George Mason University in Virginia, Clemson in South Carolina, the University of Southern California and Arizona State. This rankings have considerable impact on recruiting and, particularly for George Mason, it is likely to improve their application base even further in the coming year.
There were a lot of ties in the top ten this year. My college, University of Chicago, tied for eighth with Columbia and Duke. Overall, Chicago educators did well with Northwestern University ranking 12th. Here is the top ten (with ties at 4, 6, and 8):
1 Harvard University
2 Princeton University
3 Yale University
4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
4 Stanford University
6 California Institute of Technology
6 University of Pennsylvania
8 Columbia University
8 Duke University
8 University of Chicago
The best liberal arts colleges are also ranked:
1 Amherst College
1 Williams College
3 Swarthmore College
4 Wellesley College
5 Middlebury College
6 Bowdoin College
6 Pomona College
8 Carleton College
9 Davidson College
10 Haverford College
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I am not sure why the author of this piece of lousy work said “In a bit of a surprise for many academics” that Harvard re-gained its number ranking, where in many years, Harvard has always been ranked number 1 and that is across the world.
What’s surprising about Harvard being ranked 1 in it’s local backyard? It’s the best school there is, so you start loving it and be proud of it as it is your finest university which has a lot to offer to the world.
So I guess your are saying those schools have diminished integrity. That they admitted an unqualified person because of political pressure. I don’t know about that but apparently Yale gave him a degree in history and yet he displays no knowledge of the subject and Harvard gave him a business degree and he displays no knowledge of that subject either. In fact he displays no knowledge of anything. As they say, “a mind is a terrible thing to waste” and our president is the perfect example of that. Of course it could be argued that he would be even worse had he not gone to Yale and Harvard but that would be a tough argument to make.
“George Bush Jr. graduated from both Yale and Harvard.
That speaks volumes about the quality of an Ivy League education.”
Yes, after he was turned away at the University of Texas law school.
He got into Yale and Harvard thanks to alums Daddy and Granddaddy. Both schools obviously lowered their entrance requirements to ground level for him. Just another example of his life of being taken care of and bailed out of problems by Daddy and his influence.
George Bush Jr. graduated from both Yale and Harvard.
That speaks volumes about the quality of an Ivy League education.
Dundar,
Out of an honest sense of interest, what other raters are you referring to? Being a Colorado native, I know that the Air Force Academy is an extremely tough school to get into, and know it’s quality of graduates.
The problem is that Military schools can’t be set up in the same way as traditional colleges. So you’re comparing Lemons and Oranges (there are some similarities but there are also some clear differences).
On top of that, what makes a school a “good school” is fairly subjective. I went to a state run school known for it’s Performing Arts program, but the rest of the classes were a joke. For me it was a good school, for someone looking for a science degree, it was terrible. My wife on the other hand went to a private school known for its Science program, but its music department was being rebuilt and was considered a joke. For her it was a great school, for me it would have been a huge waste of money.
Funny how this rater purposefully left off military academies such as the Air Force Academy that more reputable raters show as one of the top schools.