What are the inputs and weights for US News grad program ranking? The US News website states that their process for ranking graduate programs &quot;involves factors ranging from the personal to the objective. [...] U.S. News is able to present the most current figures on enrollment, job placement, faculty and other critical quality indicators.&quot; And they survey &quot;experts who teach and direct programs in these fields to evaluate their peer programs.&quot;
Source: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-graduate-schools/articles/rankings-faq#1a
From this we know their scoring function includes weighted inputs of: enrollment, job placement, faculty metrics (citations, publications, impact?), and &quot;expert&quot; assessments.
Does anyone know more about the score formula? What are the specific inputs? How are they weighted?
The US News ranking algorithm is proprietary. They don't say what it is.
A few years ago some Reed College students attempted to reverse engineer the undergraduate program rankings.
See
https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/articles/2019/usnews-discrepancy.html
https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/07/29/reed-students-challenge-us-news-formula