Tag Archives: US News and World Report

US News Gives High Marks to MIT

Aerial view of the East Campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) along the Charles River. Courtesy of Nick Allen

US News and World Report once again ranked graduate schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology among the best in the nation. The weekly news magazine has been ranking schools of higher education since 1990, and MIT’s graduate engineering program has placed first in every year including this year.

Another of MIT’s high-ranking grad schools is the Sloan School of Management, this year earning the 5th place of all the country’s best graduate business programs.

As far as the individual areas of study in engineering, MIT got the top spot in six subjects: aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering (along with Caltech), chemical engineering, computer engineering, electrical/electronic/communications engineering (tied with Stanford University and UC Berkeley), materials engineering, and mechanical engineering. MIT ranked number two in nuclear engineering.

In the business division, the following four individual specialties in the MBA program ranked first: business analytics, information systems, production/operations, and project management. The study of supply chain/logistics was ranked second.

The magazine does not publish rankings of all doctoral programs every year but examines how they are doing from time to time. In 2018 MIT had 24 of the 37 science subjects they examined rank in the top five programs.

The rankings of the grad schools are based on two kinds of data: reputational surveys of deans and other academics; and statistical indicators that measure the quality of each schools’ students, faculty and research. The periodic rankings, which are less frequent, of the science, social science, and humanities programs, are based on reputational surveys alone.

America’s Best Retirement Cities

Sarasota, Florida: Downtown Sarasota Historic District: Sarasota Woman’s Club. Photo courtesy of Ebyabe.

The US News and World Report released their 2018 ranking for America’s best cities to retire. The list’s order is based on data on happiness, housing prices, healthcare benefits, tax rates, jobs, and the demand for the area.

Surveys were done with two cohorts: pre-retirement folks aged 40-59, and retirement age people 60 and over. Numbers came from The US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor

Statistics, and the hospital rankings that US News compiled on their own.

The states with the most desirable locales were mostly in Texas, Florida and Pensylvania.

1. Sarasota, Florida: Happiness: 10; Housing affordability: 6.4; Healthcare: 5.7
2. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Happiness: 8.4; Housing affordability: 6.5; Healthcare: 8.5
3. San Antonia, Texas: Happiness: 8.5; Housing affordability: 7.1; Healthcare: 5.5
4. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Happiness: 8; Housing affordability: 7.4; Healthcare: 7.1
5. El Paso, Texas: Happiness: 8.7; Housing affordability: 8; Healthcare: 4.9
6. McAllen, Texas: Happiness: 8.8; Housing affordability: 8.1; Healthcare: 5.2
7. Dayton Beach, Florida: Happiness: 7.4; Housing affordability: 7.2; Healthcare: 5.9
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Happiness: 6.9; Housing affordability: 7.5; Healthcare: 7.8
9. Austin, Texas: Happiness: 7.6; Housing affordability: 6; Healthcare: 5.5
10. Washington, DC: Happiness: 7.7; Housing affordability: 3.4; Healthcare: 9.3

The Best Places to Live in America

Denver Skyline. Photo by Hogs555
Denver Skyline. Photo by Hogs555

Every year US News and World Report evaluates US cities to find the 50 best places to live. Many parameters are universally desired, such as how affordable is the housing, are there well-paying jobs in the vicinity, are other expenses low, how are the schools, and what is the quality of the healthcare? Other issues are more subjective, such as the weather, the politics, and how far away are family members.

The newspaper then got the data on 100 US cities and divided it all into five main indexes: job market, value, quality of life, desirability, net migration. “Value” is a combination of annual household income versus the cost of living. “Quality of life” looks at crime, college readiness, commuting, and other factors.

Here are the top ten of the top fifty places to live in the USA:

  1. Denver, Colorado
  2. Austin, Texas
  3. Fayetteville, Arkansas
  4. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina
  5. Colorado Springs, Colorado
  6. Boise, Idaho
  7. Seattle, Washington
  8. Washington, DC
  9. San Francisco, California
  10. San Jose, California