University of Houston ranking soars

The University of Houston climbed 48 spots in the U.S. News & World Report 2023-24 Best Colleges rankings released today.

Details: UH is now tied for No. 133 in the overall rankings and is also tied for No. 70 in the top public schools list, up 20 spots from last year.

• Rice now ranks No. 17 in the overall national university rankings, down two spots from last year.
• The University of Texas at Austin now ranks No. 32 nationally and is No. 9 among national public universities.
• Texas A&M is tied for both No. 47 nationally and No. 20 among public schools.
• Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern University remain at No. 26 and No. 49, respectively, for best historically Black colleges and universities.

The latest: This year's rankings saw the most significant change in methodology in history, per U.S. News & World Report. The new list places more emphasis on social mobility and graduation outcomes.

• Consideration of class size, faculty with terminal degrees, alumni giving, high school class standing and the proportion of graduates who borrow federal loans no longer factor into an institution's ranking.

Between the lines: The U.S. News report is one of the most influential college rankings and has shaped the hierarchy of higher education since 1983.

The other side: The rankings have been called unreliable, and a number of higher education institutions — including Columbia University and Harvard Medical School — have declined to provide data for the rankings.

• U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who has a history of criticizing the rankings, said earlier this year that they've created "an unhealthy obsession with selectivity."