Princeton Tops U.S. News' 2022-2023 Best Colleges List Once Again

PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton topped the national list of Best Colleges released by U.S. News and World Report for the twelfth year in a row.

The media outlet has been publishing the respected guide for prospective students and families for nearly 40 years. Twenty-eight other colleges and universities in New Jersey made the list. Read more: NJ Schools Ranked Among U.S. News' 2022-2023 Best Colleges

Princeton was #1 on the list of Best National Universities with an overall score of 100 out of 100. National universities, which focus on research and offer several doctoral programs, are ranked separately from liberal arts colleges and public schools. National universities "also are committed to producing groundbreaking research," U.S. News and World Report said.

Princeton, founded in 1746, is an Ivy League college and one of the oldest in the United States. It's also ranked #2 in Best Value Schools, tied for #3 in Best Undergraduate Teaching, and ranked #4 in Best Colleges for Veterans.

The U.S. News and World Report methodology has changed over the years to reflect changes in higher education, said chief content officer Kim Castro in a news release.

U.S. News touts its ranking for providing millions of parents with “useful data and information to help with one of life’s biggest decisions,” Castro said. The media outlet ranked 1,500 colleges and universities across 17 academic measures. To rank colleges, U.S. News first places each school into a category based on its mission and, in some cases, its geographic location.

But some educational experts warn against overvaluing college rankings when selecting or evaluating an institution. Some of the issues with university rankings include the downgrading of colleges with less of a budget to promote themselves, important factors that can't be quantified, and subjective reputational factors that often influence placement, writes Alexandru Pop of Studyportals.

Two businesses emerged in the 1980s that changed higher education: the test-prep business — largely shaped by Stanley Kaplan, who founded Kaplan, Inc. — and the start of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, according to Business Insider.

U.S. News began evaluating universities based on the test scores of admitted students, which prompted colleges to desire more applicants who tested high. The universities offered merit-based scholarships and financial incentives to students who tested high. As a result, affluent parents of college applicants paid for test prep for their children to get those incentives.

James Fallows, a former U.S. News editor, even called them "meaningless" in an interview with NPR.

"The reason they started doing it back in the early 1980s under the guidance of a man named Mel Elfin, was because it was a brilliant business strategy," Fallows said. "By appealing to the human desire for rankings and knowing where you stand and where somebody else stands, they were able to make a very strong part of their business, which is now basically the only part of their business."

U.S. News ranked 1,500 colleges and universities across 17 academic measures. To rank colleges, U.S. News first places each school into a category based on its mission and, in some cases, its geographic location.

To compile the rankings, U.S. News focuses on academic quality and places emphasis on outcome measures, including graduation rates, retention rates, graduate indebtedness and social mobility. Graduation rates and other outcomes represent 40 percent of each school’s overall score.

U.S. News said it changed how it weights SAT and ACT scores because demand for the college entrance exams plummeted due to the pandemic, especially among students living in low-income households.

Part-time faculty members were considered in measures on faculty resources, reflecting a trend for more part-time instructors, U.S. News said. Previously, only full-time instructors were considered.

Read more about the methodology.

Patch's national team contributed to this report.