By Rick Yang · UC Berkeley EECS + Math, c/o ’29
November 9, 2026 4 min read
In September, MIT took the No. 1 spot in the U.S. News rankings. Princeton had held it for 15 years straight.
If you’re a high schooler, your first thought was probably something along the lines of “huh, okay?” As an EECS major in college, mine was “okay, which exact weights changed?”
Nothing really changed at Princeton, and nothing changed at MIT either. They have the exact same professors, the same campus, and of course the same students complaining about the exact same dining hall. What changed was the formula: U.S. News dropped its graduate debt metric and swapped in one called earnings by major, which looks at how much students make a few years after graduating.
That one tweak reshuffled the entire list. It also gives you a subtle hint about how to approach your application, even if you never look at the rankings again.
Two U.S. News formulas side by side. In the 2026 edition, graduate debt is 5% and Princeton is No. 1. In the 2027 edition, earnings by major replaces it at 5% and MIT is No. 1. Everything else is the same.
Same schools, one weight swapped.
Rankings are essentially a weighted sum. Change the weights, and the output changes. This year, U.S. News decided outcomes matter more, and the outcome it picked is basically a salary number. Schools pay attention to this. Not because admissions officers sit around refreshing the rankings page, but because rankings feed into everything else a school cares about: prestige, how many students apply, the caliber of the students who apply, and how the school pitches itself to donors.
I’m an engineer, not a business guy, and I genuinely love going to Berkeley. But even as a guy who stays far away from business, I can see it: universities are ultimately businesses. Each one has revenue, costs, a brand, and a reputation it needs to keep up.
Here’s roughly how that business runs:
Diagram of a loop: rankings and reputation bring more applications, more applications make admission more selective, selective admits become alumni who do well, alumni bring donations and research money, and that raises rankings again. In the middle: you are the bet. Below: tuition keeps the lights on.
The loop every admission feeds.
So when a school admits you, it’s making a calculated bet. It’s betting, essentially, that you will make the school look prestigious: you go to class, graduate with a high GPA, and go on to do something great with your life. Every “UC Berkeley alum founds X” is a headline that screams free advertising.
So what exactly should you do with this information? This is the part that actually matters. With these metrics in mind, here are a few things readers will especially look out for in the coming years:
Two activity lines compared. “Led the robotics club” is labeled a title. “Grew the robotics club from 6 members to 30 and landed our first sponsor,” with a bar growing from 6 to 30, is labeled something you made happen.
A title versus a number.
The flip side is that this is really easy to overdo. A few ways it backfires:
Here’s a simple way to test your file. Picture an admissions officer explaining your profile to the selection board in under half a minute, armed with only your folder.
Can they clearly articulate:
Two summaries an admissions officer might give in 30 seconds. One checks off what you have done, where you are going next, and why this campus. The other just says “high GPA, standard list of clubs.”
What the board hears in 30 seconds.
If the answer is yes, you’re set up well. But if their summary boils down to “high GPA, standard list of clubs,” your file comes across as a boring transcript rather than an exciting investment.
Universities operate as enterprises, placing calculated wagers on high schoolers every cycle. Show them why you’re worth taking a chance on.
If you want feedback on your file from someone who just went through this process, our team is ready. Start with a free essay review, or browse our counselors on Rewritn.
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