According to the official report of USNews, the main criteria for ranking American universities are as follows:
Graduation rate and retention rate (22.5%): Graduation rate means that students can graduate smoothly within six years (80%), while retention rate means that freshmen continue to return to school and go to sophomore year (20%). It is generally believed that the higher the score, the more resources and services are needed.
Academic reputation of undergraduates (22.5%): This project mainly examines the teaching quality of undergraduates during their study.
Teaching staff (20%): Class size (40%), professor's salary (35%), professor's highest degree ratio (15%), teacher-student ratio (5%) and full-time professor ratio (5%) are taken as the inspection criteria.
Student selectivity (12.5%): This survey is about the quality of students in schools. The survey criteria are: average SAT/ACT score (65%), high school class ranking (25%) and admission rate (10%).
Financial support (10%): the funds invested by the school in campus facilities, scientific research and campus services, but the investment in sports facilities, dormitories and hospitals is not included in the evaluation.
Graduation rate performance (7.5%): This item mainly compares the gap between the actual graduation rate and the expected graduation rate of the school, which has increased the proportion of STEM graduates this year. The higher the proportion, the higher the score.
Alumni donation rate (5%): This survey examines the proportion of living alumni (bachelor degree or above) who donated to the school in the past 2-3 years, which can reflect students' satisfaction with the school.
If you are interested in the details of grading, you can visit official website to check the ranking:/education/best-colleges/articles/how-us-news-calculated-the-rankings.
2. What are the obvious changes this year? What dark horse schools are there?
Compared with 20 17, the ranking has not changed much. The following are the ranking changes this year:
Top 10: Princeton ranked first for five consecutive years, Harvard ranked second, and the University of Chicago entered the top three last year. This year, I continue to tie for third place with Yale University, which is a firm foothold. Columbia University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania and Duke University are still in the top ten, and their rankings have not changed much. California Institute of Technology successfully ranked 10th, replacing Johns Hopkins University, which ranked 10th last year.
Top 1 1-30: The top 30 universities have been ranked stably over the years, which shows that their level has been fully recognized by the public. This year, all schools have basically moved forward or backward by 1-2 places, and the only one with the biggest change is new york University, which rose by 6 places and entered the top 30.
Top3 1-60: Similarly, there are no new schools in this field, and some schools have changed greatly, such as the University of Florida, Pepperdine University, Villanova University, University of Urbana-Champaign, Purdue University and University of Connecticut.
Top6 1- 100: Yeshiva University (also the most floating school in this ranking) changed the most, dropping 28 places to 94 places. Yeshiva University is one of the oldest comprehensive universities in the United States. Because it was initiated by Jewish believers, it is also called Jewish University. Due to religious reasons, China students rarely apply, and the academic level of business and law majors is still excellent. The other is North Carolina State University, a famous engineering college, which rose from 92 to 865,438+0. Many engineering majors in the school rank very high, and this year's ranking of the School of Engineering also ranks 25th.
Villanova University, as the dark horse of last year, participated in the ranking for the first time and advanced to Top50 in one fell swoop. This year, it continues to rise to 46th place. According to this trend and the strength of universities, it is expected to continue to rise next year. China students may not be familiar with this school. Villanova, a Catholic university with a long history in Pennsylvania, enjoys an excellent geographical position and an excellent reputation in business, engineering, nursing and medicine. The university has also spent a lot of money on undergraduate teaching, which is very valuable for research universities. In addition, students who are familiar with the National College Basketball League should be familiar with this school. Villanova University is also very good at sports. In 20 16, villanova defeated the traditional basketball school, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and won the second NCAA championship in its history.
In this year's undergraduate application, villanova has provided many choices of ED, EA and RD. Students who are interested in this dark horse school can choose flexibly according to their own situation.
3. Analyze several schools with obvious changes, and analyze the reasons for their ranking changes.
New york University: NYU returned to the top 30. In fact, in the annual application, NYU mostly belongs to schools with higher application difficulty coefficient than the ranking. The school's superior geographical location, reputation and academic strength have attracted many applicants, which is the strength of the top 30 and the difficulty of applying, so it is natural to return.
University of Florida and Florida State University: The rankings of these two schools have increased greatly, advancing 8 places and 1 1 respectively, reaching 42 places and 8 1. In previous years' undergraduate applications, China students chose these two schools less. First, the application deadline for the University of Florida is165438+1early October. Many students themselves have no obsession with this school and think that the preparation time is hasty, so they naturally ignore it. Second, domestic parents and students generally prefer the east and west coasts for the geographical location of choosing schools, and consider the lack of schools in the south. Whether this year's ranking rise will bring a new wave of applications is unknown. Unfortunately, it recently caught up with Hurricane irma, which caused great losses to the state. So, will you consider applying again this year?
Pepperdine University: It has steadily increased year by year. It was still around 60 in previous years. Last year, it entered the top 50. This year, it continued to rise by 4 places to 46 places. The future can still be expected. Students who love California, in addition to the well-known universities in California system, can also consider applying for this school.
University of Illinois at Urbana-Urbana-Champaign: It fell 8 places and fell out of the top 50. UIUC has always been called the Popular Lovers School in the industry. Students with high standardization are willing to take it as a guarantee, and students with normal standardization also want to sprint. After all, the strength and ranking of the school are there. I don't know if this year's ranking decline was also affected by the YINGYING ZHANG incident, but I believe it won't hinder a large number of students who are still preparing for EA to apply for this year.
4. What schools are recommended with good rankings and low application difficulty?
In the same ranking batch, you can apply for more public universities, because generally speaking, the number of students in public universities is relatively large and the admission opportunities are greater, such as Irvine, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University and other public universities. In addition, for students with clear professional interests but unsatisfactory standardization, they can consider applying for some schools with good professional rankings but slightly lower comprehensive rankings. But in the final analysis, the application varies from person to person, so the application difficulty of each school is also aimed at different students. The premise of successful application is to do a good job of self-analysis and choose a school rationally.
5.20 18 The curtain of applying for studying in the United States has been opened. Ask the teacher to give you some advice on choosing a school!
On the premise of knowing the admission situation of previous universities in advance and comparing our own conditions, first, grasp the opportunity of ED, don't waste it, and bravely and rationally try to reach the dream school that you want to go to most; Second, give full play to the protective umbrella role of EA. You can apply for two or so slightly higher or matching schools, plus 65,438+0-2 universities that are basically admitted, so getting the offer as soon as possible has important guiding significance for the school selection in the regular application stage, and can also appease some students and parents who are prone to anxiety. Third, according to the results of early application, study the application situation of that year and carefully formulate the list of schools that apply regularly.
Finally, I hope that all students and parents have a correct attitude towards the ranking, refer to it but don't rely on it. I believe that what suits them is the best choice, and the school will not affect the application difficulty just because it rises or falls a few places. I wish you all an ideal offer in this year's application!