MWC Schools in US News 2024 Rankings

[FresnoFacts]

Time for the new US News and World Reports rankings for the next year's thread battles.

US News released its latest college rankings for 2024.
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings

This year's rankings included some changes in categories used and how categories were weighted. That resulted in moves that benefited some colleges (mainly public schools) while dropping some colleges down (often private schools).

The rankings also used more outside data sources rather than relying just on the data submitted to USNWR by the schools to counter issues with incorrect data.

Changes included dropping items such as undergraduate class sizes, alumni giving rates and high school class standing which previously were about 18% of the ranking. Those changes impacted many private schools.

USNWR also added new faculty research items such as citations per publication, field-weighted citation impact and the share of publications cited in the top 5% and 25% of the most cited journals. The survey of survey of presidents, provosts and deans about other school's academic profile remained.

Then the ratings added student factors involving first-generation and low-income students such as first-generation graduation rate,

The NY Times noted "But more than a dozen public universities, many of them with relatively low profiles, climbed at least 50 spots in the rankings. Fresno State moved up 64 places, to No. 185, for instance, and Florida Atlantic ascended 53, to No. 209. Many other public institutions recorded smaller, if notable, gains, like Rutgers, which saw each of its three campuses rise by at least 15 places. They benefited from an algorithm that sent some private universities’ rankings plummeting but represented an effort to account for deals that higher education leaders routinely talk up, like transforming the lives of economically disadvantaged students."
http://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/us/us-news-college-ranking.html

 

National Universities (Carnegie Doctoral Schools - R1, R2, R3)
San Diego State - #105 tie (up from last year's #151 tie)
Colorado State - #151 tie (no change from last year's #151 tie)
Hawaii - #170 tie (down from last year's #166 tie)
Fresno State - #185 tie (up from last year's #250 tie)
Nevada - #195 tie (up from last year's #263 tie)
Wyoming - #216 tie (up from last year's #292 tie)
New Mexico - #236 tie (down from last year's #212 tie)
Utah State - #269 tie (down from last year's #250 tie)
UNLV - #269 tie (up from last year's #285 tie)
Boise State - #332 tie (up from last year's #331-440 tie)

West Regional Universities (Carnegie Master's Colleges & Universities)
San Jose State - #4 tie (up from last year's #22 tie)

National Liberal Arts Colleges (Carnegie Baccalaureate Colleges)
Air Force -  #7 (up from last year's #16 tie)

[bigd]

Good for Boise, I believe that's the first time they're actually ranked among national universities (ie not in the range lumped at the end). 

Fresno's ascent has been impressive in numerous rankings, as the transformation of economically disadvantaged students takes a larger share of the ranking. 

Overall more MW schools moved up than down, which is good. 

[SDSUfan]

1st gen grad rate is de facto recognition the CSU system mission.

It's about damn time too.

[East Coast Aztec]

Too drastic a change.  They must have heavily altered their metrics, so this is essentially just a new ranking list.

[RebelAlliance]

On 9/18/2023 at 11:47 AM, East Coast Aztec said:

Too drastic a change.  They must have heavily altered their metrics, so this is essentially just a new ranking list.

They did.  They're weighing issues of social mobility higher, issues such as low income students and first generation students and how well a school does at retaining and graduating them.  The reason for UNR's big jump is that they are apparently doing very well at that, which is something a university--and in particular a public university--should be doing well.  Good on Reno.  I noticed that it didn't hurt and often helped the usual suspect publics like the UC campuses, B1G schools, Washington and UNC, so despite their selectivity, they don't seem to have turned themselves into finishing schools.  Conversely, a some rich kid safety school privates like Wake Forest, Santa Clara and Pepperdine dropped significantly.

[RebelAlliance]

On 9/18/2023 at 11:40 AM, SDSUfan said:

1st gen grad rate is de facto recognition the CSU system mission.

It's about damn time too.

Which is exactly what CSU's should be doing instead of prestige chasing by adding unnecessary doctoral programs in some vain attempt to turn themselves into poor man's UC's. 

[Slapdad]

On 9/18/2023 at 12:15 PM, RebelAlliance said:

They did.  They're weighing issues of social mobility higher, issues such as low income students and first generation students and how well a school does at retaining and graduating them.  The reason for UNR's big jump is that they are apparently doing very well at that, which is something a university--and in particular a public university--should be doing well.  Good on Reno.  I noticed that it didn't hurt and often helped the usual suspect publics like the UC campuses, B1G schools, Washington and UNC, so despite their selectivity, they don't seem to have turned themselves into finishing schools.  Conversely, a some rich kid safety school privates like Wake Forest, Santa Clara and Pepperdine dropped significantly.

Nevada is on their way to AAU status! 

[SDSUfan]

On 9/18/2023 at 12:26 PM, RebelAlliance said:

Which is exactly what CSU's should be doing instead of prestige chasing by adding unnecessary doctoral programs in some vain attempt to turn themselves into poor man's UC's. 

You'll get no argument from me.

[RebelAlliance]

On 9/18/2023 at 2:33 PM, Slapdad said:

Nevada is on their way to AAU status! 

We'll see, but the reasons for UNR's impressive jump under the new USNWR format have literally nothing to do with what the AAU member schools would be looking for in a candidate.  

[Slapdad]

On 9/18/2023 at 3:32 PM, RebelAlliance said:

We'll see, but the reasons for UNR's impressive jump under the new USNWR format have literally nothing to do with what the AAU member schools would be looking for in a candidate.  

You can't stop our momentum...don't even try!

[LetTheFurFly]

I added Gonzaga, Oregon State and Washington State for comparisons. I included academic ties at the bottom of the page.

The formula was changed this year boosting public schools up while pissing off a lot of private/law/medical schools. Several Ivy leagues announced they didn't cooperate with the US News surveys though US News uses public records and published their results anyway.

National university rankings are out of 435 with many, many ties in-between. A handful of unranked schools remain on the bottom of the listings. 

Academic Ranking Ties/Similar Peer Profiles:

Private schools without sports conference ties were omitted. All public schools included. AAU membership in italics. 

Gonzaga: Auburn, Baylor, Loyola Marymount, Iowa

San Diego State: Arizona State, CSU-Long Beach, George Mason, Saint Louis, Colorado, Tennessee

Colorado State: DePaul, Duquesne (PA), Seton Hall, Kansas, Rhode Island

Hawaii: Florida A&M, Kansas State, Mercer (GA), Alabama

Fresno: Bradley (IL), Hofstra (NY), LSU, Oklahoma State, Samford (AL), Idaho

Nevada: East Carolina (NC), Louisville, Tulsa

Wyoming: Ball State, Mississippi State, Texas Tech, UMASS-Boston, UNC-Greensboro, West Virginia

New Mexico: Belmont (TN), Grand Valley State (MI), Lipscomb (TN), UC-Denver, North Dakota, North Florida, UT-Arlington

Utah State/UNLV: NIU, Memphis, UMKC, South Dakota

Boise State: Marshall (WV), Morgan State (MD), Wichita State (KS), SIU

[LetTheFurFly]

San Jose State is considered a regional university (west):

San Jose State tied with St. Mary's (CA) in this ranking. 

The US Air Force Academy is considered a liberal arts college in these rankings:

[FresnoFacts]

Good additional information but maybe this should be merged with the earlier US News ranking thread I started this morning.

Mine had last year's rankings to show movement up or down.

Mods can we merge these threads?

 

 

[happycamper]

On 9/18/2023 at 7:59 PM, FresnoFacts said:

Good additional information but maybe this should be merged with the earlier US News ranking thread I started this morning.

Mine had last year's rankings to show movement up or down.

Mods can we merge these threads?

 

 

No.  Mwcboard needs to know I'm #1

[HR_Poke]

CSU is ranked too high.

[LetTheFurFly]

I don't mind a merge with @FresnoFacts thread, but please don't leave out realignment relevance next time. Without that you don't have the complete impact picture for the sports forum.

Academics is part of the recruiting picture, so I compared MWC schools with others involved in sports conference/TV money/undergrad base politics. 

I also edited to show AAU membership with academic ties in this ranking FWIW. 

[FresnoFacts]

Realignment is definitely a current consideration to look at, as I said you added some good info. But in past years (and maybe in future years) realignment may not be a discussion topic on people's minds. I've started USNWR ranking threads in the past when realignment was not occurring showing just conference schools so didn't think about adding some comparison schools this time.

[sprtnfan]

Take these ranking with a grain of salt. They are not without criticism from those within academia. 
 

U.S. News, too, has much to answer for in this scandal. While it casts the college rankings as a consumer service, the product it peddles has done enormous harm to American higher education. Its conception of academic merit is simplistic and distorted. U.S. News claims to determine the “Best Colleges,” but all it really does is add up a series of somewhat extraneous variables, such as alumni giving and administrative spending. 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/22/opinions/columbia-ranking-inaccurate-data-thaddeus/index.html
 

US News and World Report is mostly a shell of what it use to be, mostly relying on rankings.  Sort of like a consumer reports.   

 

[Slapdad]

On 9/18/2023 at 10:52 PM, sprtnfan said:

Take these ranking with a grain of salt. They are not without criticism from those within academia. 
 

U.S. News, too, has much to answer for in this scandal. While it casts the college rankings as a consumer service, the product it peddles has done enormous harm to American higher education. Its conception of academic merit is simplistic and distorted. U.S. News claims to determine the “Best Colleges,” but all it really does is add up a series of somewhat extraneous variables, such as alumni giving and administrative spending. 

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/22/opinions/columbia-ranking-inaccurate-data-thaddeus/index.html
 

US News and World Report is mostly a shell of what it use to be, mostly relying on rankings.  Sort of like a consumer reports.   

 

That’s the reason for the change in criteria this year. There were a number of respected institutions last year that said they would not participate unless there were sweeping changes in the formula. I think you’ll see tweaks over the next few years and more scrutiny on self-reported metrics that several schools admitted to embellishing. 

[Nevada Convert]

Wow, if this trend continues, it won’t be long and we’ll have to discuss academic minimums for WSU and OSU.