What is the criteria for a college or university to become nationally ranked?

Answer 1

It really depends on who is doing the ranking. Colleges and universities are ranked by a multitude of individuals within a multitude of organizations, and those organizatrions may choose to segment their findings using various criteria, indicators , and methods of approach. However, the following example was taken from U.S. News. The U.S. News rankings system rests on two pillars. It relies on quantitative measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and it's based on our nonpartisan view of what matters in education. First, schools are categorized by mission and, in some cases, by region. The national universities offer a full range of undergraduate majors, plus master's and Ph.D. programs, and emphasize faculty research. The liberal arts colleges focus almost exclusively on undergraduate education. They award at least 50 percent of their degrees in the liberal arts. The universities-master's offer a broad scope of undergraduate degrees and some master's degree programs but few, if any, doctoral programs. The comprehensive colleges-bachelor's focus on undergraduate education but grant fewer than 50 percent of their degrees in liberal arts disciplines. The comprehensive colleges-bachelor's include institutions where a minimum of 10 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded are bachelor's. The universities-master's and comprehensive colleges-bachelor's categories are further subdivided by geographic area-North, South, Midwest, and West. Next, we gather data from each college for up to 15 indicators of academic excellence. Each factor is assigned a weight that reflects our judgment about how much a measure matters. Finally, the colleges in each category are ranked against their peers, based on their composite weighted score. Most of the data come from the colleges-and U.S. Newstakes pains to ensure their accuracy. This year, 94 percent of the schools we surveyed returned information. We obtained missing data from sources such as the American Association of University Professors, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Council for Aid to Education, and the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. Data that did not come from this year's survey are footnoted. Estimates may be used when schools fail to report particular data points. The indicators we use to capture academic quality fall into seven categories: assessment by administrators at peer institutions, retention of students, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and (for national universities and liberal arts colleges) "graduation rate performance," the difference between the proportion of students expected to graduate and the proportion who actually do. The indicators include input measures that reflect a school's student body, its faculty, and its financial resources, along with outcome measures that signal how well the institution does its job of educating students. Following are detailed descriptions of the indicators used to measure academic quality:

• Peer assessment (weighting: 25 percent).
• Retention (20 percent in national universities and liberal arts colleges and 25 percent in master's and comprehensive colleges).
• Faculty resources (20 percent).
• Student selectivity (15 percent).
• Financial resources (10 percent).
• Graduation rate performance (5 percent; only in national universities and liberal arts colleges).
• Alumni giving rate (5 percent).

The above should be noted as only one method of approach. Also included in the research is information not only from the reporting insitutuion, but from the American Association of University Professors, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Council for Aid to Education, and the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. Hope this helps Viper1