Rice climbs back to 18 in USNWR rank

By Anita Alem     9/11/15 5:34pm

Rice climbed one rank in the U.S. News and World Report Best Universities ranking, placing it at number 18, as it was ranked in 2014. Rice had previously been at rank number 17 from 2005-2013, then fell to 18 in 2014, and again to 19 in 2015.

The ranking places Rice just behind Cornell University, Vanderbilt University, and Washington University in St. Louis, all tied for the 15th place. The University of Notre Dame is similarly ranked at number 18.

According to the USNWR website, the rankings are calculated based on a number of quantitative factors, including academic reputation, retention, student selectivity and faculty resources, which are weighed most heavily. Alumni giving rate is the least heavily weighted, factoring into five percent of the overall calculation.

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This year, according to the USNWR website, there were two changes in the calculations. The rankings included survey results from two years, spring 2014 and spring 2015, instead of one and the high school counselor scoring average used three years of data instead of two.  The USNWR states this is to reduce year-to-year volatility in the results. The data used for the calculations is almost entirely provided by the universities themselves.

The listing does not include liberal arts colleges, but does include both public and private universities.

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