USA TODAY: Penn State University and a pair of small liberal arts colleges in California made some of the biggest gains this year in the U.S. News & World Report annual rankings.
None of them pushed perennially top-ranked schools such as Princeton or Williams out of their top perches, but they fared well under a revised formula that puts less emphasis on who gets admitted and more on whether students graduate…
Under the new U.S. News methodology, graduation-related data account for 30% of the rankings, making it the most-heavily weighted factor. Student selectivity, based on class rank and standardized test scores, accounts for 12.5% of the formula, down from 15% last year. Other key factors include a school’s reputation among peers and faculty resources… (more)
