College Rankings & Accolades (2024)

FAQs

What is the most trusted college ranking site? ›

U.S. News & World Report. The U.S. News college rankings are viewed as the gold standard of college ranking lists. Its list is the most well-known and referenced.

Top Half: Try to be in the upper half of your class. If you're in a class of 500, aim to be ranked 250 or higher. This shows you're doing better than most of your classmates. Top 25%: If you're looking at moderately competitive colleges, being in the top 25% is a good goal.

All of our rankings are based on objective data from various sources we deem reliable. This includes public sources such as the Department of Education, or the FBI, and private sources such as Pay Scale, and many others.

In the context of Ivy League schools, like Yale and Harvard, a good class rank is typically one that places a student within the top 5-10% of their graduating class. It is crucial to understand that Ivy League admissions are highly competitive, with thousands of qualified applicants vying for a limited number of spots.

QS World University Rankings created by TopUniversities.com is one of the top international rankings measuring the popularity and performance of universities all over the world.

A 3.8 GPA is considered to be a very good GPA and is often an indicator of strong academic performance.

Is a 3.5 GPA Good? As a top-letter grade, a B+ or A- is considered "good." A 3.5 GPA means that a student consistently performs well on homework, tests, and projects in every subject, making it a desirable GPA across the board.

A 4.0 GPA (Grade Point Average) is typically considered a perfect or straight-A average. Since it represents the highest possible grade point average, a 4.0 GPA would place you at the top of your class in terms of academic achievement.

The three longest established and most influential global rankings are those produced by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE) and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (the Academic Ranking of World Universities; ARWU).

Do students care about college rankings? ›

Many students and families consult college rankings to help figure the best place to go. Since 1983, U.S. News & World Report has published the most famous list. Now it competes with lists produced by the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, and Princeton Review.

Different college-ranking organizations use different methodologies for calculating their rankings. Some may weigh academic reputation more heavily, while others might put more stock in student satisfaction. That's up to each organization's discretion, which is why these lists can be so subjective.

Most schools in the US use a 4.0 unweighted GPA scale, where an A (90-100%) is worth 4.0 points, a B (80-89%) is worth 3.0 points, and so on. In this case, valedictorians usually have GPAs very close to 4.0, but they might not always have a perfect 4.0 due to minor variations in grading.

While being valedictorian can boost your admission chances, being top-ranked isn't always necessary for acceptance into top schools. Admissions officers also value 'softer' aspects like essays, extracurricular activities, and recommendation letters—you need them in addition to strong grades.

However, being in the top 10% of your class is already a significant accomplishment. Generally, Ivy League schools tend to admit students who are in the top 5-10% of their class, but that doesn't mean you can't get in with a slightly lower ranking.

Several organizations produce worldwide university rankings, including the following. The three longest established and most influential global rankings are those produced by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), Times Higher Education (THE) and Shanghai Ranking Consultancy (the Academic Ranking of World Universities; ARWU).

Niche, one website that profits from its school ratings by selling schools digital marketing services, also uses inaccurate test-score data and survey data with low response rates to judge schools.