| Elite schools dominate the U.S. News and World Report top college rankings, with Harvard in at #1 and Princeton at #2. Here's the 2011 Best Colleges list.
It's official -- the prestigious and much-hyped U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges Ranking is here for 2011.
This year, the coveted #1 spot went to the Harvard University. This is the second year in a row that Harvard earned that distinction. Princeton University, which tied with Harvard for #1 on last year's 2010 U.S. News & World Report Rankings, earned the number two spot.
Top National Universities 2011
U.S. News & World Report creates annual lists of college rankings in a number of different categories. However, the list everyone wants to be on is the National Universities list, which is reserved for doctoral degree granted research institutions. Here are the top 20 schools on the list. (The odd numbering is because many of the schools are tied.)
1. Harvard University
2. Princeton University
3. Yale University
4. Columbia University
5. Stanford University
5. University of Pennsylvania
7. California Institute of Technology
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
9. Dartmouth College
9. Duke University
9. University of Chicago
12. Northwestern University
13. Johns Hopkins University
13. Washington University in St. Louis
15. Brown University
15. Cornell University
17. Rice University
17. Vanderbilt University
19. University of Notre Dame
20. Emory University
For the most part, the list hasn't changed much from last year. Columbia University climbed from #8 to #4. Other than that, none of the top ten schools changed in rank by more than three spots. As usual, the list is dominated by Ivy League and other elite institutions.
Methodology of Choosing Top Colleges
So how does U.S. News and World Report choose their top colleges? According to the U.S. News & World Report website, the data is determined by a combination of factors. About 22 percent of the decision is made based on "undergraduate academic reputation." Reputation data is based on surveys from university officials and guidance counselors. Other factors that are considered include graduation rates, freshman retention, student selectivity, faculty resources, and financial resources.
So is this methodology the best way to rank colleges? Critics may argue that the criteria strongly favor elite schools that mostly serve a small portion of the population. Other popular college rankings from Forbes Magazine and the Princeton Review focus primarily on student data, with significantly different results. At Forbes, there's a more diverse mix of elite and other schools on the list, and Harvard only placed eighth. The Princeton Review doesn't rank top schools, but instead uses student surveys to create categories such as the Top Party School ranking.
Of course, some critics would argue that the whole business of ranking colleges is flawed. Here's more about the college rankings debate.
On the other hand, proponents of the U.S. News & World Report rankings argue that these rankings can be valuable tool in choosing schools. While no one would suggest that students and parents use these lists exclusively to make a decision, the list does give some well-researched insight into school reputation and academic quality.
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