By SUSAN JONES
Pitt dropped slightly in the ranking of national universities for the 2024 U.S. News & World Report Best College report released Sept. 18, but one of the University’s undergraduate programs climbed into the top 10.
Overall, Pitt tied for 67th (down from 62nd last year) with George Washington, Syracuse, University of Massachusetts–Amherst, University of Miami, and Villanova. Penn State was in the tied group just ahead of Pitt. The national universities list includes 439 schools
For public universities, Pitt ranked 32nd, down from 23rd last year. This year’s ranking included 227 schools.
Pitt’s undergraduate nursing program rose five spots to 10th. Nursing Dean Christine Kasper said, “This accomplishment signifies our continued journey toward providing top-tier nursing education and producing graduates who are exceptionally well-prepared to significantly impact healthcare on a global scale.”
The undergraduate engineering program among doctorate-granting universities rose a spot to 53rd. Pitt also made the top 50 in two new U.S. News categories: undergraduate psychology (34th) and economics (41st).
Other highly ranked programs include Pitt’s undergraduate business offerings (38th) and the computer science program (63rd). Pitt also was named 40th in best colleges for veterans.
Two of Pitt’s other campuses also made the Best Regional Colleges North rankings, which included 52 schools. Pitt–Johnstown was 12th (up from 27th last year) and Bradford was 20th (up from 29th last year). Both also were in the top 10 for Best Colleges for Veterans in the North region.
Methodology changes
U.S. News & World Report made refinements to this year's rankings formula by dropping five longstanding factors, modifying the weights of several other factors, and introducing a few new ones.
The reworked formula assigned greater emphasis to graduation and retention rates for students who received Pell grants. It also introduced metrics tied to first-generation college students and to whether recent graduates were earning more than people who had completed only high school. Overall, peer assessment and graduation rates continued to have the most weight for the rankings. Find details on the methodology here.
Five factors totaling 18 percent of the previous edition's rankings were removed from the formula completely. These factors and their corresponding weights last year were class size (8 percent), the proportion of a school's faculty with terminal degrees (3 percent), alumni giving rate (3 percent), the proportion of graduates borrowing (2 percent) and high school class standing (2 percent).
Despite the changes, the same three universities once again led the overall list — Princeton, MIT and Harvard — and the public universities list — University of California at Berkeley, UCLA and Michigan.
U.S. News has faced serious criticism over the past few years and several schools have dropped out of its law school rankings, including Pitt, and medical school rankings.
Colorado College in February became one of the first schools to stop cooperating completely with U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the nation’s best colleges.
In a message then to the school’s community, Colorado College President L. Song Richardson said, “U.S. News’ flawed methodology still equates academic quality with institutional wealth and continues to rely heavily on the infamous questionnaire asking institutions to rank each other’s reputation, a non-objective process subject to gaming.”
She told the New York Times this week that the refreshed methodology was “slightly better, … It doesn’t ease my concerns, which is why we haven’t rejoined.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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