U.S. News & World Report strongly believes in the transparency of the data collection and ranking process. Here’s a look at the annual statistical surveys that U.S. News sends to colleges to collect data for the Best Colleges rankings.
U.S. News collected the data for the 2022-2023 Best Colleges rankings in the spring and summer of 2022. The survey uses an online, password-protected data collection system. U.S. News relies on schools to accurately report their data. However, the data collection process has data validation built into the three separate statistical surveys to alert schools that the data they are entering may be incorrect. In some cases mainly for schools that didn’t respond to the U.S. News statistical surveys, U.S. News used data either from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) via the National Center for Education Statistics or from the College Scorecard, both of which are part of the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. News also assesses a school’s data for large changes, either up or down, compared with what the school reported to U.S. News the previous year for a given data point. In addition, schools need to sign off on any large changes or other data issues for U.S. News to ensure that their data is accurate. As the final step in the data collection process, U.S. News asks each school to sign an electronic data verification form stating that its data is accurate. After the data is submitted, analysts at U.S. News review schools’ submissions to detect outliers and inaccuracies, comparing schools’ data with their other figures, peer institutions and, when possible, third-party sources. Schools with flagged data may be asked one final time to confirm or revise their figures for them to be published and incorporated into the rankings.
During the spring and summer 2022 data collection, for the fourth year in a row, a senior official at each school was asked to sign the electronic verification described above. The few schools that didn’t have a senior official sign their U.S. News Main statistical survey have this footnote on their profile: “School declined to have a school official verify the accuracy of the information contained in the U.S. News Main statistical survey.”
U.S. News uses almost all the questions from the Common Data Set as part of the survey. The CDS is a set of standards and definitions for higher education data that is collected by publishers and used in higher education research. The CDS is not a survey, and there isn’t a central database that holds each school’s CDS.
The CDS is a collaborative effort between publishers and higher education officials that has improved the quality and accuracy of information that colleges provide and make available to consumers. U.S. News is one of three publishers that manage the CDS initiative.
It’s important to note that all three participating publishers (listed below) ask many additional questions of colleges beyond what is covered in the set. Responses to these additional questions are used on each publisher’s website and in print products.
In the case of U.S. News, some of the additional data requested on the annual Best Colleges statistical surveys – such as faculty salaries, financial information from a school’s annual operating budget and alumni giving data – is used as indicators in the ranking methodology to compute the rankings. Most of the questions U.S. News asks that are not part of the CDS appear on usnews.com as part of each college’s profile but are not part of the ranking methodology.