Tiered Universities?

Question

I can name quite a few 1st tiered schools, who can't.

What about second and third tier?... I think I hear of a 4th maybe.

Does some organizations does this classification or it just what colleges called each other?

Is there a list of this?

I am familiar with US News rankings. I didn't know it was based off of that.

Sorry, CoachT but I am still confused. How are the tiers determined again? Is it based off of that big national university list or something else?

My university is ranked higher than I thought. But from what I hear form other students... were are not tiered.

I am talking about the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Answer 1

This is based on the ratings of US News and World Reports. The first and second are really ranked as "top" in each category and include the top 50%. The third tier is next and includes the next 25%. The lowest 25% is in fourth tier.

Add, in each separate category, the schools are ranked. This makes the list different for national universities, master's universities, liberal arts colleges, etc... Each list has a top, tier 3, and tier 4.

A school could move up or down the tiers simply by changing categories. For example, a small liberal arts college would not score very high if they were compared to the national universities. A national university would score very high on the list of bachelor's comprehensive colleges.

The thing is, each of those lists is different. The schools on the separate lists can't be fairly compared to each other because they are different types of schools.

U. Mo. - Columbia is 88 on the national universities list. That doesn't place them higher than number one on the liberal arts college list - those are different types of college. It does place them lower than 87 other national universities though.

Top 100 on the national U list is a pretty nice place to be though.

Some schools are so specialty driven that they aren't ranked at all. The Juliard School is an example.

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

Answer 2

it's just an opinion of u.s. news and world report magazine..

you'll have to google it though, they make you pay for the other listings besides the top tier (120ish schools) on the website... or just go to the bookstore..

Answer 3

http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php
Tiered ranking are listed somewhere on their site