Schools
Columbia Falls In Rankings After Admitting To Submitting False Data
The Morningside Heights school grabbed the headlines with its drop from No. 2 to No. 18 in the recently released U.S. News College rankings.
![An image of a statue on Columbia University's campus.](https://patch.com/img/cdn20/shutterstock/23306266/20220913/022036/styles/patch_image/public/shutterstock-452410822___13142006366.jpg)
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.
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"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.
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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.
- Princeton University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Harvard University
- Stanford University
- Yale University
- University of Chicago
- John Hopkins University
- University of Pennsylvania
- California Institute of Technology
- Duke University
You can check out the full ranking — here.
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