U.S. News & World Report To Release 2017 College Rankings Today

U.S. News & World Report will reveal its 2017 rankings Tuesday of the best colleges in America. As is usually the case, it's a list you'll want to pay attention to.

Making a decision on where to attend college is often the biggest decision a high school student will have to make. It's typically just as nerve-wracking for the parents.

U.S. News’ rankings are considered an important resource for many. The news organization spends months compiling data from hundreds of schools around the country. In a region like New England with so many prestigious schools, the more information the better.

Last year, Harvard ranked second, MIT was seventh, Dartmouth College was No. 12, and Brown University was No. 14.

The 2017 version of the college rankings will be released Tuesday. Check back with Patch later Tuesday morning for the full rankings.

Other News & World Report Massachusetts rankings:

• 10 Best Public High Schools
  
• Top Hospitals in Massachusetts

So, how are the rankings compiled?

U.S. News will release its full methodology Wednesday. But U.S. News Chief Data Strategist Robert Morse told Patch that the publication considers objective factors such as graduation and retention rates.

“College is expensive,” Morse told Patch in an email. “In addition to considering factors like location, cost, course offerings and activities, families should pay close attention to graduation and retention rates.

“These are important indicators of how well a school supports its students academically and financially. The Best Colleges rankings measure academic excellence, and we believe that students and their families should strongly consider academic quality when choosing a college.”

Typically, the prestigious Ivy League schools have a stronghold on the top of U.S. News’s lists. Last year, for instance, Princeton University, Harvard University and Yale University took the first three slots on the national rankings.

The rankings are broken out by state and by category. Students and parents can also look at the publication’s rankings of best value schools and best public schools and the best schools by discipline such as engineering and business.

They can also drill down and see how specific schools perform across several metrics.

“U.S. News believes that the more information that is available to students, the better,” Morse told Patch.

“Rankings, done right, are a useful source of information for students. U.S. News rankings focus specifically on assessing academic quality of schools. If academic quality is a top priority, our rankings are an ideal place to start.”

Photo by Tim Sackton via Flickr