r/HowardUniversity • u/Disastrous_Parsnip63 • 21d ago
Howard has its highest ever U.S. News national ranking (#73)
Once they started giving extra credit to schools with a high number of pell grants that graduate, Howard and other HBCUs (mainly the Black Ivys) began to surge.
This is a good and bad thing. It's a good thing b/c it will attract better students, faculty, and improve Howard's reputation. It's a bad thing b/c it will absolutely make Howard more complacent in its dsyfunction and people who come to Howard are awaiting a rude awakening about the real Howard.
U.S. News changed their formulas a few times in the last 20 years. The last change they made was to be more inclusive of schools like Howard, Spelman, Morehouse, FAMU, NCAT b/c they were were being ranked so low despite being so highly regarded in Black American culture. People complained, U.S. News listened and HBCUs started to soar in rankings. And this was during the height of the BLM movement by the way.
Howard is currently ranked above schools that are objectively much stronger on paper like a University of Houston, UAB, VCU, and UT Dallas. So do the rankings have merit? You be the judge.