U.S. News and World Report Ranking
Aug. 18, 2023
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff,
Early today, the U.S. News and World Report published its annual college rankings list. The organization implemented significant changes in methodology this year that led to many dramatic shifts in the rankings by strongly favoring some universities that had been lower in the rankings previously. In many cases, these changes in methodology removed or decreased the weighting of indicators that were favorable to private institutions like Brandeis.
The changes to the methodology included:
- reducing the significance of faculty salaries
- reducing the weight of financial resources per student
- eliminating metrics on class size, faculty with a terminal degree, alumni giving and high school standing — all of which tend to be more favorable at private institutions
Brandeis’ ranking was particularly affected by the decision to remove class size as a factor, as our class sizes are small — 60% of our classes have 19 students or fewer — and that point of pride for the university accounted for a significant 8% of the prior score.
Another significant factor now is "expected graduation rates," rather than actual graduation rates. This metric generally favors large public institutions. For example, one large California public university, which has a far lower actual graduation rate than Brandeis, performs better in this metric because it outperforms its "expected" rate. While our actual graduation rate is significantly higher than that of most other institutions, the focus on "expected graduation rate" negatively impacts our score. We want to be clear, however: We are proud of our high graduation rates, regardless of how they impact our rankings.
On the plus side, Brandeis continues to be ranked in the Top 50 of the "Best Value Schools" category, moving up two spots to 39, and we improved in the "Top Performers on Social Mobility" ranking, moving up 23 spots. In the "Undergraduate Teaching Programs — National Universities" ranking, Brandeis moved up 6 spots into the Top 50 at 48.
We see other areas of opportunity: We have been working with faculty to connect their scholarship profiles to Brandeis, as the number of research citations is now an increased part of the methodology. By linking their profiles, metrics related to faculty research are captured and linked to our ranking. The number of faculty who have created these links has grown in recent years but remains lower than is needed to represent our research productivity. The citations metrics now contribute as much as 4% of the College Report score.
We maintain that no ranking can define what school is the best option for any individual student. For the past 75 years, Brandeis has developed significant and distinctive strengths that have made it an outstanding choice for our students. We will continue to refine and excel in those areas that align with the university's strategic goals.
Sincerely,
Ron Liebowitz