UT Drops to 52nd in U.S. News Ranking

By Rose Cahalan in Blog, Special on September 11, 2013 at 9:30 am | 1 Comment

These days colleges are subject to hundreds of rankings of every flavor, from “Best Value” to “Fittest,” but there’s still one ranking that commands more attention than any other. U.S. News and World Report‘s annual ranking of American universities was released this week, and UT dropped from 46th to 52th—a change that University officials, as well as the national media, are attributing to U.S. News‘ revised methodology.

U.S. News tweaked their rankings formula this year to place more emphasis on factors like graduation rates and retention rates. The revisions “take into account the latest data and trends in higher education,” U.S. News director of data research Robert Morse told USA Today.  This year’s ranking has UT tied for 52nd with the University of Washington.

Class rank was given less weight in the revised rankings, a change that U.S. News says it made because fewer high schools are reporting class rank, thus making it a less meaningful indicator. Since up to 75 percent of each incoming freshman class at UT is automatically admitted under the so-called Top 10 Percent Law, it seems logical that the shift would push UT down in the U.S. News ranking.

UT spokesperson Tara Doolittle said that while University officials pay attention to the rankings, the results don’t play a major role in UT’s strategic decisions.

“We like it when we do well in the the rankings, but they don’t drive our strategy,” Doolittle said. “This year’s U.S. News ranking gave less weight to factors like peer assessment, where we have historically done very well. Student success and graduation rates are very important to us, and our campaign is already showing some results.”

Read the full ranking at U.S. News’ website.

Photo by Marsha Miller.

Tags: rankings, U.S. News, U.S. News & World Report