Columbia Falls In Rankings After Admitting To Submitting False Data

MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS, NY — In the aftermath of admitting to incorrectly reporting data, Columbia University fell to No. 18 from the No. 2 spot in its return to the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the best colleges in the country released on Monday.

The Morningside Heights' school lofty ranking was questioned after a math professor at the world-famous institution wrote a blog accusing Columbia of using "inaccurate, dubious or highly misleading" data in its submission to U.S. News & World.

The university admitted during the first week of September that it had overstated its numbers for how many small classes it offered and how much of the faculty hold a doctorate or the equivalent of the highest degree in their fields.

"We deeply regret the deficiencies in our prior reporting," Mary Boyce, Columbia's provost, said in a statement last week.

Columbia was removed from the U.S. News & World Report's 2021 ranking after admitting to the false data, and its 16 spot drop in the 2022 list has called the annual list into question.

The ranking is among the most-watched list of colleges and is often used by highly ranked schools in recruitment and fundraising efforts.

You can read how U.S. News & World Report ranks the colleges on its website.

Here are the top 10 schools ranked in the 2022 list.

1. Princeton University
2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3. Harvard University
4. Stanford University
5. Yale University
6. University of Chicago
7. John Hopkins University
8. University of Pennsylvania
9. California Institute of Technology
10. Duke University

You can check out the full ranking — here.