Last Tuesday, anxiety-ridden high school seniors frantically reworked their college lists as U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of the best colleges in the country was released and Columbia was named number four ...again (followed by the (!!??!?!) five-way tie for fifth).
But what does the number four ranking actually mean? What separates us from say the two schools tied for number one, Harvard and Princeton? The answer lies in the mythical and complex methodology of the U.S. News rankings.
