U.S. News & World Report released their 2021 college rankings earlier today.  Over 1,400 schools were covered nationwide and evaluated on multiple measures of academic excellence and outcomes to produce the final rankings.

This year's methodology includes consideration of new student debt metrics, social mobility and inclusion of test-blind institutions. The weighting of outcomes has also increased.

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

U.S. News and World Report Ranking Changes (2021 vs 2020)

College Kickstart LLC

• National Universities
• Liberal Arts Colleges

• Institution	Rank (2021)	Rank (2020)	Change
  Princeton	1	1
  Harvard	2	2
  Columbia	3	3
  MIT	4	3	1
  Yale	4	3	1
  Stanford	6	6
  University of Chicago	6	6
  University of Pennsylvania	8	6	2
  Caltech	9	12	3
  Johns Hopkins	9	10	1
  Northwestern	9	9
  Duke	12	10	2
  Dartmouth	13	12	1
  Brown	14	14
  Vanderbilt	14	15	1
  Rice	16	17	1
  Washington University in St. Louis	16	19	3
  Cornell	18	17	1
  Notre Dame	19	15	4
  UCLA	20	20
  Emory	21	21
  UC Berkeley	22	22
  Georgetown	23	24	1
  University of Michigan	24	25	1
  USC	24	22	2
  Carnegie Mellon	26	25	1
  University of Virginia	26	28	2
  UNC Chapel Hill	28	29	1
  Wake Forest	28	27	1
  NYU	30	29	1
  Tufts	30	29	1
  UC Santa Barbara	30	34	4
  University of Florida	30	34	4
  University of Rochester	34	29	5
  Boston College	35	37	2
  Georgia Tech	35	29	6
  UC Irvine	35	36	1
  UC San Diego	35	37	2
  UC Davis	39	39
  William & Mary	39	40	1
  Tulane	41	40	1
  Boston University	42	40	2
  Brandeis	42	40	2
  Case Western	42	40	2
  University of Wisconsin - Madison	42	46	4
  UT Austin	42	48	6
  University of Georgia	47	50	3
  University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign	47	48	1
  Lehigh	49	50	1
  Northeastern University	49	40	9
  Pepperdine	49	50	1
  University of Miami	49	57	8

• Institution	Rank (2021)	Rank (2020)	Change
  Williams	1	1
  Amherst	2	2
  Swarthmore	3	3
  Pomona	4	5	1
  Wellesley	4	3	1
  Bowdoin	6	6
  Claremont McKenna	6	7	1
  Naval Academy	6	17	11
  Carleton	9	7	2
  Hamilton	9	14	5
  Middlebury	9	7	2
  Washington and Lee	9	10	1
  Grinnell	13	14	1
  Vassar	13	14	1
  Colby	15	11	4
  Davidson	15	17	2
  Haverford	15	11	4
  Smith	15	11	4
  West Point	15	21	6
  Colgate	20	17	3
  Wesleyan	20	17	3
  Barnard	22	25	3
  Bates	22	21	1
  University of Richmond	22	23	1
  Colorado College	25	27	2
  Harvey Mudd	25	23	2
  Kenyon	27	27
  Macalester	27	25	2
  Air Force Academy	28	39	11
  Bryn Mawr	28	27	1
  Scripps	28	33	5
  Soka University of America	28	27	1
  Berea College	33	46	13
  Bucknell	34	35	1
  Mount Holyoke	34	32	2
  Holy Cross	36	27	9
  Oberlin	36	33	3
  Pitzer	36	35	1
  Skidmore	36	39	3
  Lafayette	40	39	1
  Occidental	40	39	1
  Thomas Aquinas	40	35	5
  Franklin & Marshall	43	38	5
  Denison	44	43	1
  Trinity College	44	46	2
  Union College	44	45	1
  DePauw University	47	46	1
  Dickinson	47	46	1
  Sewanee	47	43	4
  Whitman College	47	46	1