Brandeis dropped in the U.S. News and World Report Best National University rankings for the fourth consecutive year, ranking 42 in the 2021 edition. It tied for 42nd place with Boston University, Case Western Reserve University, University of Texas at Austin and University of Wisconsin—Madison, according to the most recent U.S. News rankings.
In the 2020 edition, Brandeis tied for number 40 with Boston University, Northeastern University, Case Western Reserve University, College of William and Mary and Tulane University in the category of best national universities. The previous year, the 2019 edition, Brandeis ranked 35, tied with the Georgia Institute of Technology. In the previous three years, Brandeis ranked 34. Brandeis’s highest ranking was in 2014, at 32 place.
In this year’s ranking, Brandeis received an overall score of 72, with a six-year graduation rate of 89 percent and a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1. To compare, Princeton University, which placed first in this year’s rankings, has a score of 100, a six-year graduation rate of 97 percent and a student-to-faculty ratio of 5:1.
Brandeis ranked number 39 in Best Undergraduate Teaching, tying with Biola University, the University of Chicago and the University of Pennsylvania. Brandeis went up in this category from the previous year, placing 76 in best undergraduate teaching in 2020 (tied with Boston University, Columbia University and others). However, it ranked number 34 in the category in the 2019 edition.
Brandeis also ranked number 43, down 10 places from last year, in the Best Value Schools category. It also dropped in Top Performers on Social Mobility, going from number 138 in 2020 to number 191 in 2021. In the First-Year Experiences category, Brandeis ranked 45, tied with Bucknell University, Colby College, Cornell University, University of Notre Dame and Vanderbilt University. It also ranked 44 in Undergraduate Research/Creative Projects, tied with Abilene Christian University, Boston College, Bowdoin College, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Pennsylvania and others. Brandeis placed 58 in Most Innovative Schools, tied with University of California, San Diego (UCSD), Tufts University, Case Western Reserve University, Loyola University Chicago and Oregon State University.
The National Universities category requires a school to have a focus on research by faculty and to offer programs at three different levels: a wide range of undergraduate majors, master’s and Ph.D. programs. Academic quality is assessed by 15 measures, which are used to rank a university, including data, student polls, tours, expert opinion, outcomes, alumni giving, financial resources, faculty resources and student excellence. A previous Hoot article included a detailed description of how the U.S. News and World Report ranks universities.
