TCU’s rank among the nation’s universities drops, according to this report. By how much?
TCU’s 14 year streak of ranking among U.S. News & World Report’s top 100 national universities has come to an end.
U.S. News & World Report on Tuesday released its latest rankings of the best colleges in the country, a list the New York Times describes as “oft-disparaged but nevertheless closely watched.” TCU in recent years has consistently placed among the 100 highest ranked national universities, tying for 98th in last year’s iteration.
TCU now ranks as the 105th best national university, tying with Auburn University, the Illinois Institute of Technology and Saint Louis University.
TCU President Daniel W. Pullin said the university pays attention to the rankings, but remains focused on ensuring students get the best outcomes and strongest return on investment possible.
Pullin anticipates the new Burnett School of Medicine will strengthen the university’s academic profile. He said TCU has “lots of momentum” as the university invests in academics.
“I think that what so many of us see every day from an academic quality perspective is an opportunity for us to tell the TCU story, to tell the Fort Worth story, and upwardly adjust the perception of the quality of our university, which is an all time high substantively,” Pullin said.
How are rankings determined?
The rankings are meant to serve as a guide for students trying to find the school that’s a best fit for them, according to U.S. News and World Report.
“Based on statistics, the top-ranked schools provided ample classroom resources for students and faculty; conferred bachelor’s degrees at high rates; and produced graduates who entered the workforce with manageable debt and worthwhile starting salaries,” reads an article from U.S. news, explaining its methodology.
The factors that were most heavily weighed included graduation rates, graduation weight performance and peer assessment.
Pullin said recent changes to U.S. News’ rankings methodology are an advantage to certain categories of universities.
U.S. News and World Report overhauled its methodology in 2023 and many public universities saw jumps in their ratings while some private schools dropped, according to the New York Times. The changes added emphasis to retention and graduation rates for students who receive Pell grants, and factored in metrics for first-generation college students and earnings compared to those who graduated high school but not college, the Times reported.
This year, the formula for ranking colleges did not factor in metrics related to first-generation students. More emphasis was placed on graduation rates and graduation performance of students receiving Pell grants.
Pullin highlighted TCU’s graduation rates and student retention, which he said hit an all-time high last year. (First year retention rates are also weighted when crafting the rankings.)
“There are other other challenges to the methodology that we were paying attention to, and we’ll be, you know, addressing as we look ahead,” Pullin said.
The New York Times reported that Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said the rankings cause “an unhealthy obsession with selectivity” and the development of “the false altar of U.S. News and World Report.”
Many medical schools and law schools announced in 2023 announced that they wouldn’t give information to U.S. News & World Reports for its rankings, according to USA TODAY.
How did other Texas colleges fair?
Texas colleges and universities that ranked in the top 100 national universities include:
Rice University (No. 18)
The University of Texas at Austin (No. 30)
Texas A&M University (No. 51)
Baylor University (No. 91)
SMU (No. 91)
The five highest ranked schools nationwide were Princeton, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Stanford and Yale.
