Atlanta’s Spelman College has retained its spot as the nation’s No. 1 historically Black college and university in the 2027 U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings.
While Spelman leads the HBCU rankings, it is followed by Howard University at No. 2 and Tuskegee University at No. 3. Atlanta’s Morehouse College came in at No. 4.
The rankings, released Sept. 22, evaluated nearly 1,700 colleges and universities across the country based on factors including graduation and retention rates, social mobility, faculty resources and post-graduate earnings.
Nationally, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) took the No. 1 spot among National Universities, replacing Princeton University after its 15-year run at the top. Princeton ranked No. 2, followed by Harvard University at No. 3. You can read the full rankings here.
Several Georgia universities also saw significant changes this year.
Kennesaw State University made one of the biggest jumps, moving from No. 373 last year to No. 342 this year among National Universities, an improvement of 31 spots.
Georgia State University rose seven spots, from No. 198 to tie at No. 191. Georgia Tech climbed three spots, from No. 32 to tie at No. 29, while Emory University moved from No. 24 to tie at No. 23.
The University of Georgia moved in the opposite direction, falling six spots from No. 46 to a tie at No. 52.
The ties resulted from similar scores among other National Universities.
Georgia schools also appeared in several specialized rankings. Georgia Tech ranked No. 3 nationally among Most Innovative Schools, behind Arizona State University and MIT, and No. 5 in U.S. News’ new Best Value Schools for In-State Students ranking. Georgia State also ranked No. 5 among National Universities for undergraduate teaching.
But what actually determines those numbers?
LaMont Jones, managing editor for Education at U.S. News & World Report, said student outcomes account for about 52 percent of the ranking formula.
“The most emphasis is on outcomes,” Jones said. “About 52 percent of the rankings formula is based on outcomes because that’s, of course, what’s important to students and families and those who are paying for the education.”
Graduation rates account for between 16 and 21 percent of a school’s ranking, depending on the availability of usable SAT and ACT scores. Graduation-rate performance accounts for another 10 percent, while peer assessment, or how other academic leaders perceive a school, makes up 20 percent.
U.S. News also considers how well colleges serve students from different economic backgrounds. Outcomes for students receiving federal Pell Grants account for 11 percent of the rankings, split between Pell Grant graduation rates and graduation performance.
Jones said those measures help account for differences between institutions serving wealthier students and schools educating larger populations of lower-income students.
“It helps balance out [the fact that] there are some schools that are known [to] efficiently …cater to a more well-financed or higher-income…bracket,” Jones said.
A new “Earnings by Major” measure also makes up 5 percent of this year’s formula, replacing the previous graduate indebtedness metric. The measure compares graduates’ earnings four years after graduation with graduates in the same field of study.
“You can’t compare apples [to] oranges,” Jones said. “So we compare finance from school to school, education from school to school. So it’s a fair comparison.”
Jones said the change is part of a broader effort to give students and families a clearer picture of a college’s value, particularly as they weigh the cost of a degree against what students may earn after graduating.
“With families increasingly scrutinizing the true cost and return on investment of a college degree, our goal is to provide clear, actionable data,” Jones said.
The rankings also underwent broader changes this year. Roughly 20 percent of previously ranked institutions moved categories following changes to the Carnegie Classification system, meaning those schools cannot be directly compared with their previous rankings.
For students weighing where to spend the next four years, and potentially thousands of dollars, rankings can provide one way to compare institutions on factors such as graduation outcomes, affordability and academic resources. But a ranking alone cannot capture every factor that might make a college the right fit for an individual student.
Jones similarly cautioned against treating a school’s ranking as the final word when making a college decision.
“These rankings are not the end-all, be-all,” Jones said. “They are a starting point and a darn good starting point.”
