The new national college rankings were released recently and there have been a few significant changes. The reason why there has been more changes this year than in previous years is because the rankings now highlight student graduation rates, postgraduate earnings, borrower debt, and the success of students from various socioeconomic backgrounds. The rankings now reflect the landscape of higher education, so as a result more than a dozen public universities have made their way into the top 50.
This year, similar to past years, the top 5 universities are Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. One significant change in the last ten years has revolved around one of the eight Ivy league colleges: Dartmouth University. From 2009 to 2013, Dartmouth was nationally ranked as the number 1 university by U.S. News, but in recent years, Dartmouth has dropped significantly. This year Dartmouth ranks number 18, below 2 public universities— University of California Berkeley and University of California Los Angeles. Criteria that favored private universities has been demoted and boosted attributes of public universities. Other key public universities that have landed in the top 50 are University of Michigan—Ann Arbor ranking number 21, above Georgetown and Emory. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill jumped to number 22 ranking above the prestigious Washington University in St. Louis. These are just a few of the changes in the college rankings, but they are important to recognize because private universities have had an advantage in prestige over the last decade. These rankings are more equitable and provide more accurate representation for all people.
If you want to look more into the college rankings follow this link: best-colleges to see the full list.