HIGHER EDUCATION

U.S. News college rankings draw new complaints and competitors

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona criticizes rankings based on prestige as ‘a joke’

By Nick Anderson
Updated September 12, 2022 at 9:46 a.m. EDT | Published September 12, 2022 at 12:02 a.m. EDT

Mocking the chase for prestige in higher education, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona declared last month any system of ranking colleges that values wealth, reputation and exclusivity more than economic mobility and return on investment is “a joke.”

Cardona didn’t mention U.S. News & World Report. He didn’t have to. Anyone paying attention knew the target of his critique: the “best college” lists from U.S. News that have shaped the hierarchy of higher education since 1983.

As the latest rankings came out Monday, they faced mounting questions about the data that underlie them, the methods used to sort colleges and universities and the intense competition from other publications that churn out best-this and best-that lists in search of clicks from college-bound teenagers and parents.

Those data looked particularly suspect in July, when U.S. News bumped Columbia University from the lofty No. 2 perch among national universities to the hazy status of “unranked,” after questions were raised about accuracy of figures from the Ivy League school in New York. Columbia said in June it would not transmit data this year as it reviewed the matter.

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By Nick Anderson
Nick Anderson covers higher education and other education topics for The Washington Post. He has been a writer and editor at The Post since 2005. Twitter https://twitter.com/wpnick