U.S. News Best Colleges 2019

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
1	Princeton University	$47,140	5,394
2	Harvard University	$50,420	6,766
3	Columbia University	$59,430	6,162
3	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	$51,832	4,547
3	University of Chicago	$57,006	6,264
3	Yale University	$53,430	5,746
7	Stanford University	$51,354	7,062
8	Duke University	$55,960	6,692
8	University of Pennsylvania	$55,584	10,033
10	Johns Hopkins University	$53,740	6,109

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
10	Northwestern University	$54,567	8,278
12	California Institute of Technology	$52,362	961,000
12	Dartmouth College	$55,035	4,410
14	Brown University	$55,656	6,988
14	Vanderbilt University	$49,816	6,885
16	Cornell University	$55,188	14,907
16	Rice University	$47,350	4,001
18	University of Notre Dame	$53,391	8,576
19	University of California-Los Angeles	$41,294	31,002
19	Washington University in St. Louis	$53,399	7,675

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
21	Emory University	$51,306	6,937
22	Georgetown University	$54,104	7,463
22	University of California-Berkeley	$43,232	30,574
22	University of Southern California	$56,225	19,170
25	Carnegie Mellon University	$55,465	6,896
25	University of Virginia	$48,891	16,655
27	Tufts University	$56,382	5,541
27	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	$49,350	29,821
27	Wake Forest University	$53,322	5,102
30	New York University	$51,828	26,417

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
30	University of California-Santa Barbara	$42,486	22,186
30	University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill	$35,169	18,862
33	University of California-Irvine	$43,530	29,307
33	University of Rochester	$53,926	6,546
35	Brandeis University	$55,395	3,635
35	Georgia Institute of Technology	$33,020	15,573
35	University of Florida	$28,658	35,247
38	Boston College	$55,464	9,358
38	College of William and Mary	$44,701	6,285
38	University of California-Davis	$43,458	30,145

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
41	University of California-San Diego	$42,074	28,587
42	Boston University	$53,948	18,080
42	Case Western Reserve University	$49,042	5,150
44	Northeastern University	$51,387	13,825
44	Tulane University	$54,820	6,571
46	Pepperdine University	$53,932	3,604
46	University of Georgia	$30,404	28,848
46	University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign	$32,568	33,955
49	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	$53,880	6,366
49	University of Texas-Austin	$37,480	40,492

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
49	University of Wisconsin-Madison	$36,805	32,196
49	Villanova University	$53,458	6,966
53	Lehigh University	$52,930	5,075
53	Syracuse University	$51,853	15,252
53	University of Miami	$50,226	10,832
56	Ohio State University-Columbus	$30,742	45,946
56	Purdue University-West Lafayette	$28,804	31,006
56	Rutgers University-New Brunswick	$31,282	35,641
59	Pennsylvania State University-University Park	$34,858	40,835
59	Southern Methodist University	$54,493	6,452

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
59	University of Washington	$36,898	31,331
59	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	$50,530	4,435
63	George Washington University	$55,230	11,999
63	University of Connecticut	$38,098	19,241
63	University of Maryland-College Park	$35,216	29,868
66	Brigham Young University-Provo	$5,620	31,233
66	Clark University	$45,730	2,240
66	Clemson University	$36,724	19,402
66	Texas A&M University-College Station	$36,636	53,065
70	Florida State University	$21,673	33,008

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
70	Fordham University	$52,248	9,599
70	Stevens Institute of Technology	$52,202	2,978
70	University of California-Santa Cruz	$41,963	17,577
70	University of Massachusetts-Amherst	$34,570	23,388
70	University of Pittsburgh	$32,052	19,326
76	University of Minnesota-Twin Cities	$30,371	35,433
76	Virginia Tech	$31,304	27,193
78	American University	$48,459	8,123
78	Baylor University	$45,542	14,316
80	Binghamton University-SUNY	$24,488	13,728

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
80	Colorado School of Mines	$38,584	4,794
80	North Carolina State University-Raleigh	$28,444	24,150
80	Stony Brook University-SUNY	$26,934	17,364
80	Texas Christian University	$46,950	9,011
85	Yeshiva University	$43,500	2,728
85	Michigan State University	$39,750	38,996
85	University of California--Riverside	$42,879	20,069
85	University of San Diego	$49,358	5,774
89	Howard University	$26,756	6,354
89	Indiana University--Bloomington	$35,456	33,429

US Rank	University	Tuition and Fees	Enrollment
89	Loyola University Chicago	$44,048	11,420
89	Marquette University	$41,870	8,335
89	University at Buffalo--SUNY	$27,758	21,020
89	University of Delaware	$34,310	18,946
89	University of Iowa	$30,609	24,503
96	Illinois Institute of Technology	$47,646	2,900
96	Miami University--Oxford	$33,577	17,147
96	University of Colorado--Boulder	$37,288	29,091
96	University of Denver	$50,556	5,765
96	University of San Francisco	$48,066	6,847

Methodology

To create the ranking, only quantitative and qualitatively measurable key figures are recorded and evaluated. These indicators are recognised by international experts as reliable quality criteria in academic education.

The 16 indicators are weighted with a factor according to their significance. For the sake of simplicity, the indicators are grouped into the following five categories.

• Outcomes
• Faculty resources,
• Expert opinion,
• Financial resources,
• Students excellence,
• Alumni Giving

The individual key figures and their weighting are explained below.

 

1.Outcomes (35 percent)

The greatest success for any university is that its students complete the program with an academic title. In order to give this assignment a corresponding value, the success of the students with a weighting factor of 35 percent has a considerable influence on the ranking result of a university.

The success of the students is measured and evaluated with the help of the following partial key indicators:

• “Social mobility” (5 percent),
• “Graduation and Retention” (22 percent)
• “Graduation rate performance” (8 percent)

 

“Social mobility” (5 percent):

This indicator reflects the number of graduates who received a state-funded Pell scholarship during their studies.

The “Social mobility” indicator is made up of two factors, each weighted at 2.5 percent.

• The first factor puts the absolute number of graduates with a “Pell scholarship” in relation to graduates with a “Pell scholarship” from other universities.
• The second factor compares the number of graduates with and without a “Pell Scholarship” from a university who have successfully completed their studies within six years.

For both factors, a higher “Pell Grant completion rate” performsbetter than a lower one.

 

“Graduation and Retention” (22 percent)

It is obvious that universities that have a higher proportion of first-semester students who continue their studies in the second year will probably provide the service and support that students need to successfully complete their studies.

The indicator “Graduation and Retention” thus consists of the following two components.

• The average six-year graduation rate It indicates the proportion of a cohort of students who have completed their studies in six or fewer years. (Average of all institutions in 2019 = 17.6 percent)
• The average first-year retention rate It indicates the proportion of first semesters that have returned to the university in the following academic year. (Average of all institutions in 2019 = 4.4 percent)

When calculating the indicator “Graduation and Retention”, which amounts to 22 percent of a university’s overall result, the “six-year graduation rate” (17.6 percent) is weighted fourfold compared tothe “first-year retention rate” (4.4 percent).

 

“Graduation rate performance” (8 percent)

The “Graduation rate performance” indicator is calculated by the U.S. News team specifically for ranking purposes and compares the forecast with the actual “six-year graduation rate”.

 

2. Faculty Resources (20 percent)

If a university has a high focus on the quality of teaching and accordingly employs highly qualified teaching staff, the probability of students successfully completing their studies increases. In order to determine the use of resources and the quality of teaching, five indicators are analysed in the U.S. News Rankings. Due to their different influence on the success of the students, all indicators are weighted with the following factors.

• “Class size” (8 percent)
• “Faculty salary” (7 percent),
• “Proportion of full-time teachers with the highest academic title” (3 percent),
• “student-faculty ratio” (1 percent),
• “Proportion of full-time teaching staff” (1 percent)

To determine the level of salaries, the average salary level of an institution is adjusted for regional differences in the cost of living. For this purpose, the index of the consulting firm Runzheimer International is used.

 

3. Expert Opinion (20 percent)

People who work in the field of academic education have a high level of expertise and a wealth of experience in this field due to daily contact points. They can judge, for example, a university’ s success in putting innovative teaching and learning concepts into practice, or if a university has problems obtaining the necessary state accreditation.

In order that this perspective can also be justified, the assessment of quality from an expert’s point of view is considered under the indicator “expert assessment”.

To determine thisindicator, scientists, presidents, provosts and deans of studies were asked to assess the quality of the “peer institutions” they are familiar with. In addition, almost 24,400 consultants at public and private grammar schools from all 50 federal states were surveyed.

 

4. Finacial Resources (10 percent)

As the success of an individual student also depends heavily on whether he or she can put together the right courses for him or her and whether he or she can make use of the services necessary for his or her weaknesses, U.S. News also measures the financial resources of the ranked universities.

The average expenses per student for teaching, research and student support are recorded.

Infrastructural expenses such as for sports facilities, student accommodation and hospitals are not taken into account.

 

5. Student Excellence (10 percent)

A teaching and learning atmosphere is created to a large extent by the quality of the students themselves. If most students at a university are admitted with a very good high school diploma, they will form a very homogeneous and performance-oriented study group and the academic level will also be at a high level.

In order to determine the “Student Excellence” indicator, the admission values from standardised tests are analysed. The SAT scores used in this year’s rankings and published on usnews.com refer to the new SAT test, which has been carried out since March 2016.

Universities that do not publish their admission scores or communicate only incompletely are downgraded in the U.S. News Rankings using a factor that has been evaluated for many years.

 

6. Alumni-Giving (5 percent)

The indicator “Alumni giving” shows the proportion of alumni who donate annually to the former university. From this a certain degree of satisfaction and commitment of the alumni can be derived with regard to their “alma marta”.

Evaluated is the average percentage of all living alumni with a Bachelor’s degree who donated to their university in the years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017.

 

Data sources

92 percent of the data required to create the rankings is made available to U.S. News by the universities themselves.

In order to check the quality of this data, U.S. News compares it with data from previous years and checks it for plausibility.

For the current rankings, data from 1,800 accredited institutions were collected, of which 1,400 were analyzed and evaluated.

 

Non-listed schools

Within the lists there are educational institutions that are classified as “unranked”. In most cases this is due to one of the following two points.

The institution belongs to a Carnegie classification that U.S. News has not included in its rankings, such as highly specialized universities of arts, business and technology, or uses neither SAT nor ACT scores to select students within its admissions process.

 

For more in-depth information about the U.S. News Best Colleges, please visit the U.S. News website:
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges

For more in-depth information about QS Stars, visit the QS Intelligence Unit website.

www.iu.qs.com/services/qs-stars/