7 Quick Takeaways From the New 2016 U.S. News World Report College Rankings

Hot off the presses, the much-awaited U.S. News World Report college rankings have arrived for 2016, and in stunning newswell, theres not much stunning news. Princeton hasnt gone the way of ITT Tech (New Jerseys Ivy remains #1 for the sixth straight year), and the biggest out of nowhere story is that Villanova, now ranked 50th for national universities, took that perch having been reclassified from a regional university in years prior. Still, there are always interesting trends and takeaways to be had from the slow-changing, well-respected rankings. Here are seven that caught our teams eye: 1) The Central (Time)-ization of Higher Ed. The typical Harvard/Princeton/Yale top 3 was cracked by a school outside the Eastern time zone†¦and no, it wasn’t Stanford. The University of Chicago moved up from 4th to tie for 3rd (with Yale), moving the nation’s â€Å"medal podium† slightly west this year. This continues a big surge for U. Chicago in recent years, having moved up from as far back as 9th in 2010. Another big mover was Rice, jumping from 18th to 15th. The sum? A total of 6 schools – U. Chicago, Northwestern, Rice, Notre Dame, Washington University St. Louis, and Vanderbilt – in the Central Time Zone made the Top 15. (Alas, those Central-timers celebrating the notion of having 40% of the Top 15 should be careful: because of ties, a total of 18 schools can consider themselves in the Top 15, as well.) 2) USC beats UCLA In the rankings’ most dynamic intra-city rivalry, USC finally moved a step ahead of UCLA, staying at 23 while the Bruins dropped ever-so-slightly to 24th. Last year the rivals were locked at 23, whereas the previous year saw UCLA a spot head of USC. The other major intra-city rivalries stayed static, with Harvard safely above MIT, U. Chicago safely over Northwestern, and Columbia comfortably ahead of NYU. 3) It’s Good to Be A Bostonian Boston University and Northeastern each cracked the Top 40 this year (tied at 39), bringing the number of Boston schools with that distinction to 7. Harvard and MIT stayed in their usual Top 10 places, with Tufts (27th), Boston College (31st), and Brandeis (34th) also staying in that Top 40. 4) or an Upstate New Yorker While Columbia leads the way for all New York-based schools at #5, four other New York schools make the Top 40, with three of them coming from upstate. Cornell, naturally, leads that group at #15, and both the University of Rochester (32nd) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (39th, in Troy), also earned that distinction. 5) The Public Option With the exception of UC-Berkeley, each  of the 22 schools with a Top 20 designation is a  private school with a  stated price tag of over $43,000. But once that list gets into the 20s, plenty of public schools with in-state tuition costs under $20,000 enter the mix: Berkeley, UCLA, Virginia, Michigan, and North Carolina all make the Top 30, with William Mary, Georgia Tech, UC-Santa Barbara, and UC-Irvine ranking in the Top 40 at less than half the tuition cost of their private counterparts. 6) For Better Or Worse, Your Test Scores Will Matter In the standard table view, the US News World Report shows four statistics: tuition cost, undergraduate enrollment, SAT scores, and ACT scores (the range for the 25th percentile through the 75th percentile). And as you scan down the list, you’ll fisand that you have to get all the way to the 20th-ranked school (Emory) to find a middle 50% ACT range that isn’t entirely in the 30s (Emory’s is 29-33), and that only one of the top 15 schools (Dartmouth) has a middle 50% SAT range that includes scores below 1350. As long as there are rankings that are based on quantitative data, standardized test scores will be a major way for schools to rise (or fall) in those rankings. It therefore follows that admissions officers will be looking for applicants whose stats can help them rise, so prospective students to highly-ranked schools should take their test preparation seriously. 7) Money Matters, Too Seven of the Top 10 ranked schools are also in the U.S. News 2015 rankings for largest university endowments. When you see that Princeton has access to over $20 billion and Harvard holds over $36 billion, is it any wonder that these schools consistently top the U.S. university rankings? We’ll give a special shout out to Johns Hopkins, which managed its Top 10  ranking despite having â€Å"just† $3.4 billion in its coffers! Whether you think that’s puny or not, the fact is that all of these schools have the means to hire brilliant professors and give them access to world-class tools and facilities†¦ Here’s hoping that they continue to invest in improving access to education and finding endless advances in all disciplines. Do you need  help with your  college applications? Visit our  College Admissions  website and fill out our  FREE Profile Evaluation for personalized feedback on your unique background!  And as always, be sure to follow us on Facebook, YouTube, Google+, and  Twitter! By Scott Shrum  and  Brian Galvin.