U.S. News & World Report: No. 1 among national universities
Money: No. 1 in Best Colleges for Your Money
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance: No. 1 in Best College Value
Business Insider: No. 1 in 50 Best Colleges in America
Princeton Review: No. 2 in Colleges that Pay You Back; No. 2 in Great Financial Aid
Forbes: No. 3 in America’s Top Colleges; No. 1 for Grateful Grads (the median of private donations per student over a 10-year period: $29,330)
College Choice: No. 4 in Best Colleges and Universities for Women; No. 4 in Colleges with the Happiest Freshmen
Academic Ranking of World Universities: No. 6
Times Higher Education World University Reputation Rankings: No. 7
Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education: No. 8
Payscale.com: No. 9 in Colleges with the Best Return on Investment
Washington Monthly: No. 15 (rated on social mobility, research, service, graduation rate, and Pell grants)
Campus Pride: Top 30 among LGBTQ-friendly colleges
Sierra Magazine: No. 102 in America’s Greenest Universities (rated on campus sustainability efforts)
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2 Responses
Frank Ellis ’54, Richard Tombaugh ’54
8 Years AgoImprove this Ranking
Like many other alumni, we were proud to see Princeton again ranked No. 1 among American universities by U.S. News & World Report (On the Campus, Oct. 26). We wish that Princeton would have been ranked higher than 102nd among American colleges and universities that “prioritize environmental protection” by Sierra Magazine in its October 2016 issue. Admittedly the criteria used by the Sierra Club to establish its rankings could be at odds with other worthy institutional priorities, but it still would be gratifying to see our university ranked higher than 102nd among the “colleges working hardest to protect the planet in 2016.” Ultimately, it would be wonderful for Princeton to claim the No. 1 spot in both these college rankings.
Shana S. Weber
7 Years AgoRating Sustainability
Our office was delighted to read Frank Ellis’ and Richard Tombaugh’s (both ’54) invocation for Princeton to improve its sustainability ranking (Inbox, Jan. 11). The authors correctly intimated that ranking systems can sometimes be misaligned with the most meaningful impact universities can have (e.g., innovative behavioral-science and technology research in sustainability, on-site demonstrations of sustainability inquiry, collaborative partnerships). Sometimes pursuit of our institutional mission and commitment to evidence-based, meaningful impact means sacrificing some forms of recognition.
Moving the needle on sustainability is a collaborative process, with Princeton innovating through a distributed leadership approach and participation in collective-impact objectives across all of higher education. This approach involves long-range, complex systems thinking and partnerships of varying character and context. Because of the need for locally informed solutions to global sustainability challenges, we believe the institutions involved in this endeavor are more appropriately rated rather than ranked.
Toward that end, we participate in the most widely used and reputable sustainability-tracking resource in higher education: the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment, and Rating System (STARS). This tool, much like the LEED rating system for buildings, allows schools to pursue credits that are the most relevant to their context and strengths. STARS enjoys credibility because the process of developing STARS credits is transparent, as are all the data submitted.