Abstract
Universities compete to improve their ranking in the different ranking systems and expend resources toward this goal. Higher rankings attract elite students, research funds, government and public support, among other benefits. However, perhaps the most influential ranking system in U.S. contexts—the U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings—has largely remained unchanged for decades, leading researchers to question how highly-ranked institutions remain atop the rankings. As a result, the focus of this study was to examine all institutions reporting complete statistics to U.S. News in 2018 (n = 228) and develop experimental algorithms to learn which ranking criteria most contribute to an institution’s overall ranking. Of the 28 major ranking metrics, most algorithms demonstrated that predicted graduation rate, six-year graduation rate, and peer assessment best predicted overall U.S. News ranking. However, predicted graduation rate and peer assessment are highly subjective and speculative in nature, possibly contributing to the sustained stratification of U.S. News rankings.
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