Several Philadelphia-area universities are doing well on U.S. News & World Report's latest “Best Colleges” list, with some seeing big ranking improvements thanks to a recent change in how the list is calculated.
In the 2023 list released last week, five universities from the region were ranked among the top 100 in the United States. The University of Pennsylvania, as always, is one of the most highly rated schools in the country, this time coming in at No. 6 on the list of national universities, and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania is No. 1 on the list of the best business programs in the country. Villanova University is No. 67 in the nation. Temple University made it into the top 100 for the first time at No. 89, and Drexel University just barely made it in at No. 98, tied with six other universities, including Rutgers University-Camden.
Princeton University maintained its number one ranking in the nation for the sixth consecutive year.
Other notable local schools on the Best Colleges list include Thomas Jefferson University, ranked 142nd nationally, and La Salle University, ranked 201st. St. Joseph's University was No. 8 on the list of northern regional universities, and Arcadia University in Glenside, Montgomery County, was even lower on the same list at No. 69. Swarthmore College and Bryn Mawr College both made the list of most innovative schools, coming in at No. 15 and No. 18, respectively.
How methodology changes affected Philadelphia-area college rankings
This year, there were some surprises due to changes in the underlying ranking methodology used by U.S. News. These changes generally place more emphasis on outcome metrics like graduation rates and social mobility, and less on enrollment rates and alumni giving, resulting in some universities jumping up 50 or more spots compared to the 2022 rankings.
At least nine schools in the Philadelphia region specifically benefited from the new rankings format: Temple University rose 32 places from last year's list to tie with Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, for 89th place; West Chester University rose 40 places to 209th; Rowan University rose 30 places to 163rd; Pennsylvania State University rose 17 places to 60th; University of Delaware rose 13 places to 76th; Rutgers-Camden rose 29 places to 98th; and Rutgers Main Campus in New Brunswick rose 15 places to 40th on the list.
“Temple University's ranking increase is all the more gratifying because it was not something we focused on or set out to achieve last year,” Temple University Acting President Joan Epps said in a blog post Monday. (Epps died suddenly on Tuesday after falling ill during a university event.) “We simply remained dedicated to Temple University's core priorities of access, student experience, student outcomes, diversity and faculty quality, and our dedication to our mission has paid off.”
Other schools also saw their rankings drop due to changes in the way they are evaluated. Villanova University dropped 16 places in the national rankings. Immaculata University, a private Catholic university in East Whiteland, Chester County, also dropped in the rankings, dropping 31 places to 280th.
What's changed? How US News recalculated its controversial college rankings system
U.S. News frequently tweaks its school ranking algorithms, but this year's changes are said to be the most dramatic methodology tweak in the past 40 years, according to The New York Times.
To update its ranking methodology, U.S. News added some new factors, removed others, and adjusted the weighting of certain data points it already used. New ranking factors include the number of first-generation students attending a school, the likelihood that graduates will earn more than those without a college degree, and how productive and cited faculty are in terms of published research.
The new evaluation methodology will also focus on graduation rates for students who receive federal Pell Grants, a school's student-to-faculty ratios and a metric called graduation rate performance.
The list no longer takes into account factors that tend to favor wealthy schools, such as the size of their alumni, their ranking in their high school class, or the rate at which alumni donate at a particular school. U.S. News & World Report published a blog post with a detailed analysis of the changes.
The methodological adjustment comes after years of criticism and skepticism from some universities about the list, which U.S. News & World Report has published annually since 1983. Over the past four decades, the list has become influential for parents and students researching colleges, and somewhat controversial among universities. Some have questioned the accuracy, fairness and overall value of the list, and some see it as an outside influence on higher education decision-making.
Some universities have opted out of direct participation in the annual rankings, while others have made significant efforts to influence the results. Last year, Rutgers Business School was accused of falsifying data to boost its position in the rankings; Rutgers denied the accusations. Meanwhile, Moshe Porat, the former dean of Temple University's Business School, was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison last year for submitting false information to boost the school's rankings.
