The U.S. News & World Report 2027 college rankings are here, using a new metric to help prospective students and their families decide whether college is worth it.
U.S. News & World Report published its annual college rankings on Sept. 22, ranking more than 1,700 four-year colleges and universities nationwide in categories like geographic region, academic major and student experience.
The for-profit magazine's annual rankings have long been a source of love and loathing in higher education circles.
Plenty of administrators obsess over the ranking, and many university presidents love to tout the annual recognition. But critics have argued that the rankings, which began in 1983 and have long been considered the gold standard, are biased toward selective
private universities, are too easily manipulated by the schools themselves, and wrongly value prestige over the breadth of a school's offerings.
Despite the criticism, U.S. News & World Report has stood by its rankings, saying it offers students and parents essential information to determine what college is right for them. It has adjusted its methodology for ranking schools over the last couple of years, increasing the weight of a school's success in graduating students from different backgrounds, and eliminating factors like alumni giving, class size and high school standing.
But the magazine said it overhauled this year's rankings to address higher education's growing public scrutiny around affordability and long-term return on investment.
The most significant among these, according to the magazine, is the new Earnings by Major factor, which evaluates graduate earnings four years post-graduation using data from the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard.
The Earnings by Major metric replaces the ranking's previous Graduate Indebtedness factor, shifting more toward measuring what value a university adds to its graduates' post-college earnings and minimizing the influence of a student's pre-existing family financial advantages.
"With families increasingly scrutinizing the true cost and return on investment of a college degree, our goal is to provide clear, actionable data," LaMont Jones Jr., managing editor for education at U.S. News, said in a news release. "The 2027 Best Colleges rankings serve as a vital decision-making tool for prospective students and parents, offering transparent metrics on outcomes, affordability and academic quality to help families make fully informed financial and educational investments."
Jones said that U.S. News & World Report adjusted its rankings to reflect the American Council on Education's updated classifications. That means that about 20% of previously ranked schools moved into new ranking categories, and expanded eligibility means hundreds of new career and technical schools were able to be ranked for the first time.
Princeton University, which has claimed the top spot on the best national universities rankings since 2012, was dethroned this year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
M.I.T. claimed the No. 1 spot among national universities, followed by Princeton in second, and Harvard University once again in third.
How did Ohio schools rank according to U.S. News & World Report?
A number of schools in the Columbus area and around Ohio landed a spot on one of U.S. News and World Report's lists, including best national universities, best national liberal arts colleges and best regional universities in the Midwest.
Among Ohio's national universities, Ohio State University found itself once again on the top 50 best national universities.
Ohio State ranked 44th on the list, down three spots from last year's rankings. The state's flagship university shared the spot with four other universities: Case Western Reserve University, Lehigh University, Rutgers University New Brunswick, and the University of California Santa Barbara.
Ohio's regional colleges and universities had a good showing as well on their respective lists. John Carroll University took the top spot as the Midwest's best regional university, and Ohio Northern University tied for No. 3 on the same list.
Two of Ohio's liberal arts institutions also landed within the top 50 best national liberal arts colleges. Denison University shared the No. 31 spot on the list with Bryn Mawr College and Trinity College. Kenyon College tied for No. 41 with Skidmore College and Soka University of America.
Here's how other Ohio colleges and universities ranked this year:
- Ashland University: No. 49 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Antioch College: No. 184-203 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Baldwin Wallace University: No. 12 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Bluffton University: No. 42 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- Bowling Green State University: No. 276 in national universities (tie)
- Capital University: No. 49 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Case Western Reserve University: No. 44 in national universities (tie)
- Cedarville University: No. 23 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Central State University: No. 81 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- Christ College of Nursing and Health Sciences: No. 51 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- Cleveland State University: No. 342 in national universities (tie)
- Defiance University: No. 59 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- Denison University: No. 31 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Franciscan University of Steubenville: No. 36 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Franklin University: No. 157-171 in regional universities Midwest
- God's Bible School and College: No. 166 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Heidelberg University: No. 78 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Hiram College: No. 19 in regional colleges Midwest
- John Carroll University: No. 1 in regional universities Midwest
- Kent State University: No. 236 in national universities (tie)
- Kenyon College: No. 41 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Kettering College: No. 58 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Lake Erie College: No. 153 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Malone University: No. 133 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Marietta College: No. 16 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- Mercy College of Ohio: No. 48 in regional colleges Midwest
- Miami University: No. 133 in national universities (tie)
- Mount Carmel College of Nursing: No. 74 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Mount St. Joseph University: No. 110 in national universities Midwest (tie)
- Mount Vernon Nazarene University: No. 91 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Muskingum University: No. 46 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Oberlin College: No. 59 in national liberal arts colleges
- Otterbein University: No. 20 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Ohio Christian University: No. 157-171 in regional universities Midwest
- Ohio Northern University: No. 3 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Ohio State University: No. 44 in national universities (tie)
- Ohio University: No. 202 in national universities (tie)
- Ohio Dominican University: No. 117 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Ohio Wesleyan University: No. 116 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Shawnee State University: No. 136 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- The College of Wooster: No. 91 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Tiffin University: No. 136 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- University of Akron: No. 342 in national universities (tie)
- University of Cincinnati: No. 179 in national universities (tie)
- University of Dayton: No. 121 in national universities (tie)
- University of Findlay: No. 332 in national universities (tie)
- University of Mount Union: No. 36 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- University of Northwestern Ohio: No. 77 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- University of Rio Grande: No. 77 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- University of Toledo: No. 299 in national universities (tie)
- Ursuline College: No. 84 in regional universities Midwest (tie)
- Walsh University: No. 108 in national universities Midwest (tie)
- Wilberforce University: No. 74 in regional colleges Midwest (tie)
- Wilmington College: No. 39 in regional colleges Midwest
- Wittenberg University: No. 160 in national liberal arts colleges (tie)
- Wright State University: No. 382-422 in national universities
- Xavier University: No. 208 in national universities (tie)
- Youngstown State University: No. 353 in national universities (tie)
Are there other college rankings?
In response to U.S. News and World Report's annual best college rankings, a number of other publications have started their own lists. Each uses a slightly different methodology to curate their rankings.
Washington Monthly, for instance, focuses on a school's contribution to the public good in multiple categories.
Niche, a school reviews and ratings website, surveys students for their satisfaction level on a number of topics like campus food and college admissions. It recently ranked Ohio State, Case Western and Kenyon among its top Ohio colleges.
The Wall Street Journal assesses colleges using three main categories: student outcomes, the learning environment and diversity.
The New York Times developed a "Build Your Own College Ranking" tool in 2023, where users can move variables like economic mobility, low net price, athletics, racial diversity and party scene on sliders to create a more-personalized best college list.
Forbes ranks using seven factors to determine its list: alumni salary, student debt, return on investment, graduation rate, retention rate and output of American leaders (based on the website’s database of successful people, from billionaires and public servants).
Higher education reporter Sheridan Hendrix can be reached at shendrix@dispatch.com and on Signal at @sheridan.120. You can follow her on Instagram at @sheridanwrites.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: U.S. News & World college rankings are here, now with income measurement
