Guys, this rag loves controversy. I know, I know, many people turn to this as the 'bible' of college rankings but it's a joke. I don't know if you noticed, but suddenly regional schools like Santa Clara U, Elon, Loyola Marymount, as examples are suddenly 'national universities' this year. That in itself is pathetic and badly skewing the rankings once again. For decades this ranking rag has been out (early 80's) those previously mentioned schools were ALWAYS regionally ranked. AWWAYS.
What, suddenly they're national schools? Suddenly they have a plethora of PhD programs? No, they don't. The USNEWS rankings are nothing but a you know what---tease. The methodology has always been pisspoor and easy to manipulate and Morse, the founder of this garbage, likes to play head games and then justify its meanings.
As Heaven stated, if the World rankings have us at 48 (this methodology is better but still skewed) then as a school, I would accentuate that. Still, it's very bizarre to jump to #56 last year and make that leap, only to have the school go down 6 spots, when as Jim pointed out, we've had the best incoming freshmen classes in memory, the merger of the medical schools, the top flight undergraduate programs, and brand spanking new facilities that are second to none.
Bottom line: after this bizarro rankings wears off in a few weeks, no one will care. As far as I'm concerned, Rutgers was once in the high 30's when I attended, and belongs in at least the top 50. What is Morse going to do next year? Put TCNJ in the national university category like he did with a dozen schools this year? A total joke.