Why these ranking are such BS.
Now we have "social justice" impacting college rankings.....give me a frikkin break......no to mention using high school counselors.......I never met one that was worth a crap......and I know several.
Methodology
1)Social mobility: New this year, we factored a school's success at promoting social mobility by graduating students who received federal Pell Grants 5%
2)Graduation and retention rates: The higher the proportion of first-year students who return to campus for sophomore year and eventually graduate, the better a school is apt to be at offering the classes and services that students need to succeed. This has two components: We weighted it at 22 percent total
3)Graduation rate performance: We compared each college's actual six-year graduation rate to what we predicted for its fall 2011 entering class. We weighted it at 8 percent
4)Class size is the most highly weighted faculty resource measure, at 8 percent.
5)Faculty salary is weighted at 7 percent and is the average faculty pay, plus benefits,
6)U.S. News also factors the proportion of full-time faculty with the highest degree in their fields (3 percent), student-faculty ratio (1 percent) and the proportion of faculty who are full time (1 percent).
7)The peer assessment survey averages results from spring 2017 and 2018. It is weighted at 15 percent for National Universities
8)The high school counselor assessment survey averages results from spring 2016, 2017 and 2018. It is weighted at 5 percent
9)Financial Resources (10 percent)
10)We weighted standardized tests at 7.75 percent
11)High School class standing We weighted this at 2.25 percent,
12)Alumni Giving (5 percent)