Top Mass. College Rankings: U.S. News & World Report

CAMBRIDGE, MA — Massachusetts might not have made valedictorian, but it still came in at the top of the class in U.S. News & World Report's 2017 "Best Colleges" list.

Before we share the top 10, a quick word on these rankings.

We know you see lots of online lists, but Patch makes a special note of U.S. News & World Report's school reports because of its thorough, thoughtful methodology and respected place among educators. It can be a helpful guide for high schools students and their parents, and the news organization spends months compiling data from hundreds of schools around the country.

We shared the Massachusetts members of U.S. News' Top High Schools with you earlier this year.

Here are the top 10 in its 2017 top college ranking, out Wednesday:

1. Princeton University (NJ)

2. Harvard University (MA)

3. Tie: University of Chicago (IL)/Yale University (CT)

5. Tie: Columbia University (NY)/Stanford University (CA)

7. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MA)

8. Tie: Duke University (NC)/University of Pennsylvania

10. Johns Hopkins University (MD)

Other Bay State colleges on this year's list included Tufts University (27), Boston College (31), Brandeis University (34), Boston University (39) and Northeastern University, which tied with BU at No. 39.

See the full rankings here.

U.S. News Chief Data Strategist Robert Morse told Patch that the publication considers objective factors such as graduation and retention rates.

“College is expensive,” Morse told Patch in an email. “In addition to considering factors like location, cost, course offerings and activities, families should pay close attention to graduation and retention rates.

“These are important indicators of how well a school supports its students academically and financially. The Best Colleges rankings measure academic excellence, and we believe that students and their families should strongly consider academic quality when choosing a college.”

Typically, the prestigious Ivy League schools have a stronghold on the top of U.S. News’ lists. Last year, for instance, Princeton University, Harvard University and Yale University took the first three slots on the national rankings.

That’s all well and good for the best of the best high school students, but what about the rest?

The rankings are broken out by state and by category. Students and parents can also look at the publication’s rankings of best value schools and best public schools and the best schools by discipline such as engineering and business.

They can also drill down and see how specific schools perform across several metrics.

“U.S. News believes that the more information that is available to students, the better,” Morse told Patch. “Rankings, done right, are a useful source of information for students. U.S. News rankings focus specifically on assessing academic quality of schools. If academic quality is a top priority, our rankings are an ideal place to start.”

The methodology behind them includes five differently weighted categories:

• student performance data (retention, graduation rate, etc.);
• expert opinion (from presidents, provosts, high school counselors and admissions deans);
• faculty resources (including class size, student-to-faculty ratio and more); student excellence (includes incoming students' test scores and more);
• financial resources (how much money does the school spend on instruction? research? student services?); and
• alumni giving (how many graduates give back).

Image via Shutterstock

Marc Torrence, Patch National Staff, contributed to this report.

This article has been edited to reflect the correct the spelling of Johns Hopkins University.