The national publication known for sorting colleges and universities has issued a new, revised list, explaining that a coding “anomaly” led to incorrect rankings earlier this year.
Several Georgia institutions were among the 213 schools to see their numbers change since U.S. News & World Report initially published its lists in September. The corrections were posted Friday.
The rankings were already controversial, in part because of how the calculations are made. The publication includes basic measures such as class size and faculty qualifications but also more abstract metrics such as “social mobility.”
Last year, about a dozen law schools across the country announced they would no longer submit data for their rankings, which the Yale Law School dean called “profoundly flawed.”
U.S. News attributed the recent re-ranking to the discovery of “an anomaly in the code used to output” the first lists.
A half-dozen Georgia schools saw their positions change:
Dalton State College finished at 41 on the overall list in the category of regional colleges in the South, rising from 44 in September. It rose one spot on the Southern regional public colleges list, to 11.
Georgia Southwestern State University moved up two spots on the overall list for universities in the region, to 103. It rose one spot on the list for public regional universities, settling at 51.
Gordon State College dropped to 91-99 from 90-99 in the ranged rankings for regional colleges. It also shifted on the regional public college rankings, to 25-27 from 25-26.
Herzing University-Atlanta fell on the regional college rankings to 91-99 from 90-99.
Paine College is now ranked 186-204 on the overall list for national liberal arts colleges, down from 185-204. But the historically Black college rose on the HBCU list, placing 71-78, up from 72-78.
Wesleyan College dropped three spots in the list for regional colleges, landing at 6.
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