Why does U.S. News classify colleges into different categories before ranking them?
How are the categories defined? The purpose of grouping colleges into categories is to compare schools with similar missions. For example, schools that offer graduate programs and emphasize research are generally in different categories from colleges that focus exclusively on teaching undergraduates. To define the categories, we used the 2006 Basic classification system developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, an accepted classification system in higher education. U.S. News collapses nine of the Carnegie categories into four: national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional universities, and regional colleges. The regional universities and regional colleges are placed into one of four geographic categories (North, South, Midwest, and West).
