The U.S. News college rankings are out. Cue the rage and obsession

After months of tumult on American college campuses, relative stability in one realm returned Tuesday, when U.S. News & World Report published its oft-disparaged but nevertheless closely watched rankings.

Many top schools held the same, or similar, spots they had a year ago.

Among national universities, Princeton was ranked No. 1 again, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Stanford, which tied for third last year, fell to No. 4. U.S. News again judged Williams College the best among national liberal arts colleges. Spelman College was declared the country’s top historically Black institution, while UCLA fared best among public universities.

Few franchises in American higher education are as contentious as the U.S. News rankings. Over the decades, their publisher has faced trouble with manipulated data, complaints about murky methodologies, accusations of revenge and the foundational question of whether it is appropriate to rank colleges.

The top-line categories — including national universities, liberal arts colleges and historically Black colleges and universities — typically have few changes from year to year, especially at the top of the rankings. But last year, U.S. News reworked its methodology. The publisher said it was the most substantive overhaul since the rankings debuted in 1983.

U.S. News made far fewer consequential changes this year. In turn, the rankings made public Tuesday showed that consistency had largely returned.

Four universities that were already in the top 10 among national universities — the California Institute of Technology, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Northwestern — all climbed to tie for No. 6. The University of Pennsylvania fell four places, to No. 10. Another Ivy League school, Brown, also fell four spots and tied for No. 13 with Columbia, which fell one place.

Despite scarce changes at the top of this year’s national universities category, some schools wound up with sharp movements. Tulane University, which plunged to No. 73 from No. 44 last year, saw its standing improve 10 places this year.

And the publisher highlighted that nine institutions climbed by at least 40 spots. But none of them moved higher than a tie for No. 209.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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