Robert Morse, “U.S. News” College Ranking Guru, Retires

Robert Morse, the chief architect of the U.S. News & World Report college rankings, announced his retirement Wednesday after nearly a half century at the publication. 

Morse took over the paper’s Best Colleges list in 1987, four years after it was launched. His ranking methodology helped turn it into a globally influential—and controversial—product that upended college admissions just as the higher education market was expanding considerably. 

The list has for decades played a major role in shaping where students apply and how colleges market themselves and inspired a number of spin-offs.

It has also garnered many critics who say the list’s methodology favors expensive, highly selective private colleges by diluting the importance of factors like affordability and graduates’ debt, helping to spur an increasingly frenzied and competitive college admissions environment.

The list has evolved over the years, most notably in 2018, when it began to weigh students’ economic outcomes as part of the ranking process, and then in 2023, when it placed greater weight on social mobility.

“Morse’s retirement marks the end of an extraordinary era, but his legacy will continue to shape the standards of data-driven journalism and analysis for years to come,” a U.S. News spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Morse will be replaced by two colleagues from the U.S. News data team, Eric Brooks and Kenneth Hines.