Rankings Links & Information
Library Links
Note: While these sites may contain information of value to you, the Education and Social Science Library and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign do not endorse the sites or the information they contain. For more information and current research on rankings, we encourage you to read some of the articles listed in our College Rankings Bibliography and to see our Caution and Controversy page. For questions or comments, please contact Nancy O'Brien.
[http://www.asian-nation.org/best-colleges.shtml]
Methodology: This website excerpts information from the article "The Best Colleges for Asian Americans" in A. Magazine (September 30, 2000).
Asian-Nation's website includes the top 25 universities and the top 25 liberal arts colleges for
Asian Americans along with Asian American college students' commentary provided from A. Magazine's
article. This website only lists a portion of the results from A. Magazine's survey. The article
notes some fallacies of the survey, such as depending on the colleges/universities to report
statistics as well as certain notable schools that did not participate in the survey. For more
information see:
Chan, Anita and Dina Gan. "The Best Colleges for Asian Americans."
A. Magazine (September 30, 2000), pg. 39.
[http://www.blackenterprise.com/be-lists/50-top-colleges-for-african-americans/]
Methodology: The rankings methodology is stated in the section "Crunching the Numbers".
In addition to a listing of the top 50 colleges for African Americans, this article includes information on financial aid and scholarship opportunities.
[http://www.collegeprowler.com/find/by-ranking.aspx]
Methodology: This site offers no separate delineation of its methods.
This site offers rankings of "the top two-hundred schools in America" in categories that range from academics, athletics, transportation, and computers to guys, girls, nightlife, and campus dining. Individual schools are given grades in twenty subjects, and while there is no explanation for the grading system, student quotes are offered for each school.
[http://www.ccweek.com/Top_100_Archives.aspx]
Methodology: This site compiles its rankings based on degree conferral statistics that the individual schools provide to the US Department of Education. More information is provided in the introduction to the list.
Community College Week's annual list provides data on an area of higher education often missing from traditional college rankings: associate's-degree-granting two year programs. While CCW is to be commended for attempting to fill this gap, a word of caution: the lists are based solely on the total number of degrees awarded. Other factors, like instructor-to-student ratio or student satisfaction, are not taken into account. This means that, in general, a community college with 1000 students will rank 10 times higher than one with 100 students, because the raw number of degrees awarded will be higher in most instances. Retention of students until graduation may affect degrees conferred, however. In addition to the primary top 100 list, several additional lists are provided that break down degree conferrals by ethnic groups and by programs of study.
[http://www.convergemag.com/events/Digital-Comm-Colleges-Surv-Awards-10.html]
Methodology: These rankings are based on community college officials' questionnaire responses and school data.
Created by the Center for Digital Education and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), this survey, ranks the top ten tech-savvy community colleges in the categories of large (7,500 students or more), mid-size (3,000-7,500 students) and small (less than 3,000 students) community colleges. The survey is run every two years and past survey results are listed. The past Digital Community Colleges Survey Reports are available for free download, but registration is required.
[http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/]
Methodology: A thorough explanation of the research and sources used for the rankings is available on its Methodology page.
In 2008, Forbes Magazine began publishing an annual ranking of American public and private colleges and universities. The site includes an overall ranking of evaluated colleges and universities, a ranking of each school with the best value for its education, and articles about higher education. Rankings can be sorted by rank, name, state, cost, size, and, public or private institutions. Student evaluations, career success, student debt, four year graduation rate, and awards to students and faculty are used as the basis for Forbes' rankings scale.
[http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/colleges/]
Methodology: This site offers an explanation of its methods on a page titled How We Rank the Top Public College Values.
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine offers its ranking of the top 199 values in public, four-year institutions of higher education. According to Kiplinger's, these are "schools where students can graduate with a high-caliber education, but without a mortgage-size debt." This site was first published in 1998, and has been updated with more recent cost figures.
[http://oedb.org/rankings]
Methodology: This site offers an explanation of its methods on a page titled Methodology.
This site ranks 21 of the nation's top online undergraduate degree granting colleges by eight different metrics. The rankings include an overall ranking and also rankings by each of the eight different metrics: Acceptance Rate, Financial Aid, Graduation Rate, Peer Web Citations, Retention Rate, Scholarly Citations, Student-Faculty Ratio, Years Accredited.
[http://www.ordoludus.com/5.html]
Methodology: This site explains its methodology on its "About Us" page.
This site ranks 126 colleges and universities by comparing 30 different areas grouped into four separate categories: academics, quality of life, sports, and cost and tuitions. These four categories are then averaged to create overall rankings. It includes both non-weighted and weighted averages in rankings. By not just solely focusing on academics, this site intends to provide a "more well-rounded view" of the college rankings. Ordo Ludus uses data from other public ranking sources to create their own rankings.
[http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-rankings.php]
Methodology:This site explains its methodology in a sidebar on its College Ranking: All Colleges page.
This site utilizes a rankings preference methodology to rank colleges by student enrollment choices, rather than by matriculation and admission rates. Data is from students who use the Parchment application database (currently over 800,000 applications) during the college application process. The data is collated to determine what schools students are admitted to, and at which schools they choose to matriculate. Colleges are ranked based on a points system that begins at a base of 1500 points, then rewards college for being selected; colleges gain additional points for being selected over a higher ranked school. The web site explains its methodology on the main College Rankings page to help users put its rankings into perspective.
[http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx]
Methodology: This site offers an explanation of its rankings on two pages titled Surveying Students: How We Do It and The Princeton Review's College Rankings.
This site presents the results of surveys completed by college students nationwide. Rankings are offered for topics ranging from the serious (Libraries, Best Overall Academic Experience for Undergraduates, etc.) to the informal and humorous (Lots of Beer, Got Milk?, etc.). For more information about how Princeton Review's rankings are compiled and what to make of them, consult the pages on Surveying Students and the Rankings which provide an overview of their system.
[http://www.studentsreview.com/]
Methodology: This site offers an explanation of its rankings on a page titled 'Rankings Methodology'.
This site provides "answers to the questions college students wish they had known to ask". They collect surveys from undergraduate and graduate students who evaluate their universities based on questions in three categories: Department, University, and Social/Interactive. Please note that this is not a scientific sampling, but offers anecdotal reviews (positive and negative) of 1,400 universities and counting.
[http://mup.asu.edu/research.html]
Methodology: The rankings methodology is located in the rankings PDF.
This report identifies the top public and private research universities in the United States based upon nine quality measures. Universities are clustered and ranked according to total and federal research funding, endowment assets, annual giving, National Academy membership, prestigious faculty awards, doctorates awarded, postdoctoral appointees, and SAT scores of entering freshmen. Also available are lists of the top 200 public and private universities on each quality measure. The site includes other reports and resources on measuring university performance. The report and web-based data are updated annually in mid-summer.
[http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges]
Methodology: This site offers an explanation of its rankings on a page titled About the Rankings/Methodology
Updated annually, this site contains extensive information about colleges and universities in the United States, including selected undergraduate programs. The list is divided both by region and by category (National Universities, Liberal Arts Colleges, Regional Schools and Top Public Schools). Factors such as diversity, specialty schools/programs (ranked and non-ranked), and state-by-state results are ranked separately. A searchable index also provides access to the site's contents. Beginning in 2002, much of the information formerly provided free became available for purchase only from this site.
[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/college_guide/]
Methodology: The rankings are described in the article "A Note on Methodology".
This site compares rankings from other rankings sites, most notably from U.S. News and World Report, and recalculated them according to involvement in community service, research, and social mobility of students. The Methodology page provides an explanation for the criteria used. Listed are both the top 245 National Universities and the top 202 liberal arts colleges based on their criteria.
[http://whatwilltheylearn.com/]
Methodology: The criteria for their institution rankings is explained on their Rating Criteria page.
Created by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), this site aims to compare and describe the general education requirements for undergraduate students at colleges and universities. Also included on the site is the graduation rate of undergraduate students at each institution, a list of institutions with the site's top grade, and a list of schools with a tuition of $30,000 and above. The rankings criteria consider whether the institution provides required courses in the fields of composition, literature, foreign language, U.S. government or history, economics, mathematics, and natural or physical science. A, B, C, D, or F grades are awarded based on the number of requirements the institution offers.
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Last modified by: Paige Cunningham on 12/17/12