Some colleges and universities, including UMass Amherst, are touting the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings.
U.S. News says UMass is the 29th best public university in the country. That’s a one-spot improvement from last year and 11 from a couple years ago. This puts UMass on top of all public universities in New England except for UConn, which is ranked 19th.
When you add in private universities, UMass ranks only 10th best in the state, finishing behind the big names in the Boston area, as well as a pair of central Massachusetts schools — Clark and Worcester Polytechnic.
For what the magazine calls “National Liberal Arts Colleges,” for the seventh straight year Williams College got first with Amherst College second. Although, unlike UMass, those schools refuse to publicize the rankings.
“It is nice to be considered among the top colleges in the country, but we feel rankings are not what we should focus on to bring students to our college,” says Mary Dettloff, a spokesperson for Williams.
Many experts take issue with U.S. News and World Report because of what they call its subjective and ever-changing criteria.