Colleges That High School Counselors, College Officials View Differently

In order to show the degree to which top college administrators and high school counselors differ in their views of the academic quality of universities, U.S. News is publishing an analysis of colleges that shows the academic reputation rankings gap as reported by high school counselors and high-ranking college officials in our 2014 Best Colleges rankings.

This is the second year we have analyzed this data for schools in the National Universities rankings category, but is the first time we have done so for National Liberal Arts Colleges.

St. Mary's University of Minnesota and Soka University of America, in California, lead the exclusive list of schools that are more highly ranked by high school counselors than by college officials by the largest number of places. This was the second year in a row St. Mary's topped the list of National Universities.

When a college is ranked higher by high school counselors than by the college raters, the school's undergraduate reputation among its academic peers is lagging behind the view of that college held by high school counselors.

A college which has an undergraduate academic reputation ranked lower by high school counselors than by college administrators has a considerably greater reputation among its fellow academic raters than it does among high school counselors.

The National Universities that are more highly ranked by high school counselors are generally either smaller schools, universities that have recently expanded into research and granting doctoral degrees or schools whose curriculum is concentrated in science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM fields. The universities that are more highly ranked by college officials than by high school counselors are all very large public universities, often the state's flagship school.

The U.S. News ranking formula weights high school counselor reputation at 7.5 percent in the rankings, and the academic reputation peer score at 15 percent in the overall ranking model for both National Liberal Arts Colleges and National Universities. U.S. News includes the subjective peer assessments because a diploma from a distinguished college helps graduates get good jobs or gain admission to top-notch graduate programs.

Only numerically ranked National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges in the Best Colleges 2014 rankings were included in this analysis.

More Highly Ranked by High School Counselors Than by College Officials

The schools in the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking categories for which the high school counselor rank was better than the school's academic peer assessment rank in the 2014 Best Colleges rankings by the largest number of places are shown in the tables below.

National Universities

National Liberal Arts Colleges

Less Highly Ranked by High School Counselors Than by College Officials

The schools in the National Universities and National Liberal Arts Colleges ranking categories for which the academic peer assessment rank was ahead of the high school counselor rank by the largest number of places in the 2014 Best Colleges rankings are shown in the tables below.

National Universities

National Liberal Arts Colleges