When I was beginning my college search in high school, I was obsessed with college rankings. While it likely bled out of my overly competitive nature, I'm far from the only student who pays attention to the numbers. An entire industry has been propped up by the obsession with college rankings. US News and World Report has become basically irrelevant as a news agency; its only significant publication is its annual college rankings. The Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) exists to do one thing: rank the world's universities. Now, with so many different rankings available, it's easy to find a specific publication that can support a personal bias. Personally, I know that US News and World Report, The Times Higher Education (THE), and CWUR rank Johns Hopkins University more favorably than Forbes or Niche do; therefore, I am much more likely to cite those rankings when discussing the prestige of my university. While this may seem harmless, it has very real implications in college recruitment and can limit the growth of reputable universities that are not viewed favorably. In order to help eliminate this bias or at least provide some clarity behind the numbers, I have explored the methodology of each ranking system to try to discover where inherent biases may exist.

Please note that all Top 10 lists are current as of July 19th, 2016

US News and World Report National Universities Rankings

Current Top 10 (Ranking includes only Domestic National Universities - schools that have master's and Ph.D programs and emphasize faculty research)

1. Princeton University

2. Harvard University

3. Yale University

4. (Tie) Columbia University

4. (Tie) Stanford University

4. (Tie) University of Chicago

7. MIT

8. Duke University

9. University of Pennsylvania

10. (Tie) California Institute of Technology

10. (Tie) Johns Hopkins University

Most Unusual Ranking

52. University of Washington

With a strong international reputation, one of the best medical schools in the country, and top graduate programs, it's a wonder that UW is not in the top 50. Especially considering the rather narrow focus of universities included in this ranking system. Likely, because the school is so large, it gets hit on multiple metrics within the section "faculty resources".

Methodology

Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5%)

15% - Academic peer rankings

7.5% - High School Academic Counselor rankings

Retention (22.5%)

18% - Six-year graduation rate

4.5% - First-year retention rate

Faculty resources (20%)

6% - Proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students

2% - Proportion with 50 or more students

7% - Faculty Salary (pay and benefits)

3% - Proportion of professors with the highest degree in their fields

1% - Student-faculty ratio

1% - Proportion of faculty who are full time

Student selectivity (12.5%)

8.125% - SAT and ACT scores of enrolled students

3.125% - Percentage of students who graduated in the top 10% of their class

1.25% - Acceptance rate of the institution

Financial resources (10%)

10% - Average spending per student on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures (excludes spending on sports, dorms, and hospitals)

Graduation rate performance (7.5%)

7.5% - Predicted vs. Actual six-year graduation rate

Alumni giving rate (5 percent)

5% - Percentage of living alumni who donated to their school between 2012 and 2014

Potential Bias

This ranking is biased against:

Regional Universities: While US News and World Report rightly separates universities with robust Ph.D programs (National Universities) from those without (Regional Universities) as Ph.D programs do strengthen the score of the schools, they do not provide their reasons for segregating the schools unless you visit the methodology page. This could lead to the false idea (which I have heard from students) that regional universities are schools that score too low to make the list of National Universities.

Up-and-coming universities: By relying on high school academic counselor rankings as a metric, the ranking maintains the placement of historically talented universities at the top, as they are the ones most likely to be named by high school counselors. While Arizona State University has recently shown itself to be a top notch research institute, its reputation as a party school likely contributes to its low ranking (129).

US News and World Report National Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings

Current Top 10 (Ranking includes only Domestic National Liberal Arts Colleges - schools that focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education and award at least 50% of their degrees in traditional liberal arts disciplines)

1. Williams College

2. Amherst College

3. Swarthmore College

4. (Tie) Bowdoin College

4. (Tie) Middlebury College

4. (Tie) Pomona College

4. (Tie) Wellesley College

8. Carleton College

9. (Tie) Claremont McKenna College

9. (Tie) Davidson College

9. (Tie) United States Naval Academy

Most Unusual Ranking

40. Whitman College

One of the most reputable liberal arts school on the west coast is not represented in the top 25 for liberal arts schools. Based on the published methodology, it's hard to see where Whitman is weakened.

Methodology

Undergraduate academic reputation (22.5%)

15% - Academic peer rankings

7.5% - High School Academic Counselor rankings

Retention (22.5%)

18% - Six-year graduation rate

4.5% - First-year retention rate

Faculty resources (20%)

6% - Proportion of classes with fewer than 20 students

2% - Proportion with 50 or more students

7% - Faculty Salary (pay and benefits)

3% - Proportion of professors with the highest degree in their fields

1% - Student-faculty ratio

1% - Proportion of faculty who are full time

Student selectivity (12.5%)

8.125% - SAT and ACT scores of enrolled students

3.125% - Percentage of students who graduated in the top 10% of their class

1.25% - Acceptance rate of the institution

Financial resources (10%)

10% - Average spending per student on instruction, research, student services and related educational expenditures (excludes spending on sports, dorms, and hospitals)

Graduation rate performance (7.5%)

7.5% - Predicted vs. Actual six-year graduation rate

Alumni giving rate (5 percent)

5% - Percentage of living alumni who donated to their school between 2012 and 2014

This ranking is biased against:

Regional Colleges: Similar to their National Universities list, US News and World Report eliminates many reputable schools from their list based on the Carnegie Classification. Here, schools without graduate programs that grant less than 50% of their degrees in traditional liberal arts disciplines are excluded from the National rankings. As above, this could lead to confusion about why they are excluded, as it is not due to merit.

Up-and-coming Colleges: The list of Best Colleges is hampered by the high school counselor rankings in the same way as the National Universities.

Forbes

Current Top 10 (Ranking includes all Domestic Universities and Colleges)

1. Stanford University

2. Williams College

3. Princeton University

4. Harvard

5. MIT

6. Yale University

7. Pomona College

8. Brown University

9. Wesleyan University

10. Swarthmore College

Most Unusual Ranking

39. California Institute of Technology

Widely regarded as the MIT of the East Coast, it is interesting to see Caltech fall so low in the rankings. Considering the institution has the second best ROI among US universities according to Forbes, the same organization that compiled this list, it is rather curious that a list built primarily on the economic success of alumni would have Caltech so far away from the top 10. Several possible reasons are explored below.

Methodology

Post-Graduate Success (32.5%)

10% - Salary of alumni, compiled by Payscale.com and U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard

22.5% - Center for College Affordability and Productivity list of America's leaders

Student Debt (25%)

10% - Average federal student loan debt load

12.5% - Student loan default rates

2.5% - Predicted vs. actual percent of students taking federal loans

Graduation Rate (7.5%)

5% - 4-year graduation rate

2.5% Actual vs. predicted graduation rate

Academic Success (10%)

7.5% - Number of students who win nationally competitive fellowships (Rhodes, Gates-Cambridge, etc.)

2.5% - Number of alumni who earn a Ph.D.

This ranking is biased against:

Small schools. A smaller institution will fare much worse in the "academic success" section and CCAP America's leaders list simply due to their lower pool of graduates. Since Caltech classes are typically made up of less than 300 students, it may explain why they have fallen so low in the rankings.

Schools with large amounts of internationals. The CCAP list, the most heavily weighted metric, includes CEOs and BoDs of the 543 largest American corporations, presidents of the 100 largest American Charities, winners of the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize, members of the National Academy of Sciences or Guggenheim or MacArthur Fellowships, winners of an Oscar, Grammy, Emmy, or Tony, and 1900 American federal officials. Schools whose most successful students work overseas will suffer considerably in this category, as only Nobel or Pulitzer prize winners or Guggenheim fellows (who must be citizens of the United States, Canada, or a Latin American or Caribbean country) will be counted in this metric.

Schools with programs designed to take more than four years. Schools that encourage double majoring (which sometimes add a fifth year of education) or have a designed five-year program (such as the engineering programs at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo) will suffer in the four-year graduation metric.

Schools with exceptionally strong engineering programs: Similar to the bias against schools with international students, schools that produce extremely talented engineers will not be rewarded as well as a school that produces top political science or business students. Engineers are more likely to become a CTO or chief engineer of a company than CEO. Similarly, engineering jobs in the private sector typically do not result in being elected mayor. The CCAP list heavily limits stereotypically engineering-based schools, such as Caltech, Harvey Mudd, and Johns Hopkins.

Times Higher Education World University Rankings

Current Top 10 (Ranking includes Domestic and International institutions that have an undergraduate program and publish at least 200 papers per year)

1. California Institute of Technology

2. University of Oxford

3. Stanford University

4. University of Cambridge

5. MIT6. Harvard University

7. Princeton University

8. Imperial College London

9. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich

10. University of Chicago

Most Unusual Ranking

104. Dartmouth College

One of the Ivy League colleges does not fare well at all in the THE rankings, with the next closest Ivy League school being Brown at 51. This does make sense in the context of the THE rankings, however, as Dartmouth does not have a large volume of graduate programs.

Methodology

The Learning Environment 30%

15% - Reputation Survey

4.5% - Student-to-Staff ratio

2.25% - Doctorate-to-Bachelor ratio

6% - Doctorates awarded-to-academic staff ratio

2.25% - Institutional Income

Research (30%)

18% - Research reputation survey

6% - Research income

6% - Research Productivity

Citations (30%)

30% - Total number of citations, normalized to academic field and language barriers

International Outlook (7.5%)

2.5% - International-to-domestic-student ratio

2.5% - International-to-domestic-staff

2.5% - International collaboration

Industry Income (2.5%)

Schools lacking a medical campus: Medical schools produce vast amounts of research, so institutions that cannot rely on a medical campus to produce publications, intellectual property patents, or citations will be limited.

Schools focused on education rather than research: As 30% of the score comes from different factors related to research, it's no surprise that schools that invest more money in undergraduate education than doctoral research are going to be significantly hampered in these rankings.

Schools with large undergraduate programs: Simply based on the "Doctorate-to-Bachelor ratio" and "doctorates awarded-to-academic staff ratio", schools that have large undergraduate programs (and, thus, hire more academic staff) are going to be at a disadvantage in this ranking, regardless of the quality of the undergraduate institution or the quality of the doctoral research.

Center for World University Rankings

Current Top 10 (Ranking includes Domestic and International Universities with graduate programs)

1. Harvard University

2. Stanford University

3. MIT

4. University of Cambridge

5. University of Oxford

6. Columbia University

7. University of California, Berkeley

8. University of Chicago

9. Princeton University

10. Yale University

Most Unusual Ranking

374. Wesleyan University

Widely considered to be one of the best liberal arts colleges in the United States, Wesleyan University only finds itself included in this ranking due to its six doctorate programs and four master's programs. Because it lacks the sheer volume of graduate programs compared to other institutions, it falls very far in the CWUR rankings.

Methodology

Quality of Education (25%)

25% - Number of high profile academic awards won by alumni relative to university's size

Alumni Employment (25%)

25% - Number of alumni who have held CEO positions at top companies (global) relative to university's size

Quality of Faculty (25%)

25% - Number of high profile awards won by academics relative to university's size

Research (20%)

5% - Number of publications in reputable journals

5% - Number of publications in highly-influential journals

5% - Total number of articles among the top 5000 cited per year, normalized for field

5% - University's h-index

Industrial impact (5%)

5% - Total number of international patent filings

This ranking is biased against:

Schools lacking a medical campus: Just as in the THE rankings, the CWUR methodology limits schools without a medical campus.

Schools with strong social science departments: As the h-index of a university is a metric, schools with strong departments in areas such as economics, political science, or anthropology are negatively impacted. Publications in these areas are much less likely to be highly cited.

Niche

Current Top 10 (Ranking includes Domestic Universities and Colleges)

1. Stanford University

2. MIT

3. Yale University

4. Harvard University

5. Rice University

6. University of Pennsylvania

7. Duke University

8. Brown University

9. California Institute of Technology

10. University of Southern California

Most Unusual Ranking

81. Swarthmore College

As the Niche rankings do not rely on graduate school data or citations (things that typically inhibit liberal arts colleges), it's interesting that Swarthmore, which is typically in the top 10 of liberal arts schools, is so low.

Methodology (Niche does not provide a thorough breakdown of each category so one cannot ascertain the true weighting of each subsection)

Academics(25%)

25% - Factors such as acceptance rate, quality of professors, as well as student and alumni surveys regarding academics at the school.

Value (25%)

25% - Incorporates statistics such as average loan amount, alumni earnings and student surveys regarding value.

Professors (10%)

10% - Incorporates factors such as number of awards won by faculty, student-faculty ratio, as well as student surveys regarding professor quality.

Student Surveys (10%)

10% - Student opinions about the quality of the overall experience at the college they currently or recently attend(ed).

Diversity (7.5%)

7.5% - Incorporates factors such as ethnic composition of the student body, proportion of international students and out-of-state students, as well as student surveys regarding diversity on campus.

Student Life (7.5%)

7.5% - Incorporates statistics such as safety, diversity, athletics and student surveys regarding student life.

Athletics (5%)

5% - Incorporates factors such as number of national championships won, athletic department revenue, as well as student surveys regarding athletics on campus.

Campus Quality (5%)

5% - Incorporates factors such as quality of campus food and housing, as well as student surveys regarding facilities on campus.

Local Area (2.5%)

2.5% - Incorporates factors such as median rent, local crime rates, access to amenities, as well as student surveys regarding the local area around campus.

Safety (2.5%)

2.5% - Incorporates factors such as campus crime rate, local crime rate, as well as student surveys regarding health and safety services on campus.

This ranking is biased against:

Division III athletic schools: These schools are biased against for two reasons - the number of division III schools and smaller facilities. There are 444 division II schools, which makes winning a national championship, one of the metrics, much more difficult than in any other division. Also, Division III schools, which are less competitive than Division I or II schools, are much less likely to make departmental revenue off of their athletic programs.

Schools with fewer athletic programs: For a similar reason as above, schools with fewer athletic teams will not win as many championships nor bring in as much departmental revenue. This is especially relevant for Division 1 schools that do not have football programs, such as Gonzaga University.

Schools with high-caliber graduate programs: For certain schools, most of their academic quality lies within their graduate and medical schools. These programs benefit undergraduates for a multitude of reasons (access to world class research professors, for example), but any impact from these programs are not included in the Niche rankings.

Schools in very small or very large cities: Within the "local area" section, you'll have bias against schools in small cities - where you're unlikely to find the amenities, listed as one of the metrics - and schools in very large cities - where the median rent is going to be very high. That could help explain why Swarthmore (#81, located in Swarthmore, PA) and Columbia (#14, located in Manhattan, NYC, NY) are lower than their typical placement.

Small schools: As every section incorporated student surveys as a metric, schools with less students (and therefore less students that frequent Niche) are more likely to be negatively affected due to unfairly negative responses having a higher overall weight on that score.

While this is a very long article, I hope you can take one thing away from it: college rankings should only be taken with a grain of salt. No college ranking can accurately say where you will be the most successful, feel the most comfortable, make your closest friends, or meet professors who will impact your life the in ways you simply cannot predict as a high school senior. College rankings are made by people who try to arbitrarily weigh your college experience for you without knowing what you value. I mean, who can really say that loan default rates are exactly 1.25 times as important as student debt load, but on-campus academic resources such as free tutoring aren't a factor at all? By all means, you can use college rankings to aid you in your search, but please do not let them prevent you from attending a college that you think is your best fit. College rankings should be a search tool, not a deciding factor.