Background

For many students beginning their College Craft process, college rankings act as an easy metric by which they can evaluate the prestige of a university. Furthermore, these rankings can act as relative benchmarks for students to assess their likelihood of getting accepted into their dream school.

Comparing College Ranking Sources

US News

For many students, US News National College Rankings is the default source-of-truth on everything related to college ranking. With decades of history and widespread recognition, the US News list carries a level of prestige that influences not only students but also schools themselves, which often market their position on the list.

US News uses a data-driven approach, updated annually, that evaluates schools across several categories. As of their latest methodology, these are the major components:

Outcomes (40%)

This is the largest portion of the ranking and focuses on student success. It includes:
- Graduation and retention rates (graduation rate: 17.6%, retention rate: 4.4%)
- Social mobility (5%): measuring graduation rates of Pell Grant recipients
- Graduate indebtedness (5%)
Peer Assessment (20%)

This is a survey of college presidents, provosts, and admissions deans at peer institutions, who rate academic quality on a scale. It’s often cited as a controversial metric due to its subjective nature, but it still plays a major role in determining rank.
Faculty Resources (20%)

This looks at factors like class size, faculty salary, faculty with terminal degrees, student-faculty ratio, and proportion of full-time faculty. It’s meant to capture the quality of instruction and academic support.
Financial Resources (8%)

Measures how much a school spends per student on instruction, student services, and other educational resources.
Student Excellence (5%)

Focuses on incoming students’ standardized test scores (SAT/ACT) and high school class standing. Note: the weight of test scores has been reduced or eliminated in recent years to adjust for test-optional policies.
Alumni Giving (3%)

Tracks the percentage of alumni who donate back to the institution, viewed as a proxy for student satisfaction.

It’s worth noting that US News has evolved its methodology over time, especially in response to criticism that it overly favored wealth and prestige. More recent updates have placed increased emphasis on social mobility and outcomes, which is a step in the direction of equity and real-world impact.

However, despite these improvements, US News still faces criticism for being overly influenced by institutional reputation and resource availability—factors that may not fully capture the student experience or learning outcomes for all types of learners.

Niche

Another popular platform among students is Niche, which differentiates itself by offering more than just academic metrics. Niche rankings incorporate student reviews, campus life, diversity, and even quality of food and dorms—categories that aren’t typically emphasized by more traditional sources. For students who value fit and experience as much as prestige, Niche can provide a more holistic view of what day-to-day life at a school might actually be like.

That said, the subjectivity of user-generated reviews can make Niche less reliable for comparing strictly academic or reputational factors. It’s best used in tandem with more data-driven rankings to get a fuller picture.

Forbes

Forbes takes a slightly different approach by focusing on return on investment. Their rankings prioritize outcomes like alumni salary, student debt, graduation rate, and post-grad success. In essence, Forbes asks: What are students getting for their tuition dollars?

This can be particularly useful for cost-conscious students or those looking to understand the long-term value of their education. However, because Forbes puts less weight on traditional academic metrics, its list can look very different from that of US News, sometimes causing confusion for students who don’t understand the methodology differences.

Our Methodology

When building our own list, we decided to take a blended approach. Recognizing that no single ranking system tells the full story, our methodology pulls from multiple data sources, including:

Academic reputation from US News
Student satisfaction and campus life from Niche
Return on investment metrics from Forbes
Acceptance rate and yield to gauge selectivity
Program-specific strengths, where applicable

We weighted these factors based on what students told us they value most: academic rigor, outcomes, and overall experience.