Influential rankings leaning on reputation surveys, with badge fees from the institutions on top.
What it's really for An institutional-rankings publisher; the order leans heavily on reputation surveys and self-reported data.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its college, hospital, and law-firm rankings, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Hospitals that rank well pay U.S. News licensing fees to use the "Best Hospitals" badge in their advertising (Children's Mercy reported about $42,000/year), and a 2023-2025 San Francisco City Attorney investigation forced U.S. News into an April 2025 settlement requiring it to disclose that it receives payments from ranked hospitals, though U.S. News insists payment does not affect placement.
Source →- Operating since
- 1948 (78 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It makes money from website advertising, lead-generation/referrals, premium data subscriptions, and licensing fees that ranked entities (hospitals, schools, law firms) pay to display "Best Hospitals"/"Best Law Firms" badges in their own marketing.
- What they do
- It publishes annual ordered rankings and ratings of colleges, hospitals, law firms/lawyers, and other institutions built largely from self-reported data and reputational peer-opinion surveys.
- What to watch for
- You will not get a measure of which hospital, school, or firm is actually best for you: the lists lean heavily on reputation surveys and self-reported figures rather than your-outcome data, and the institutions atop them often pay U.S. News to advertise their badge.
- Composite score
- 2.20 / 5.00 → grade C
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- David Lawrence founded United States News in 1933 (magazine format 1940) and World Report in 1946, merging them into U.S. News & World Report in 1948; the Best Colleges ranking debuted in 1983, and Mortimer B. Zuckerman purchased the company in 1984 and still owns it as a privately held company. Source: Wikipedia: U.S. News & World Report →
- Hospitals do not pay to be ranked but pay licensing fees to use the 'Best Hospitals' logo in marketing; Children's Mercy Hospital disclosed it pays about $42,000 per year, and the University of Kansas Hospital said its contract bars it from disclosing the fee. U.S. News also earns revenue from data subscriptions and advertising. Source: Healthcare Dive: How much does using the U.S. News 'Best Hospitals' branding cost providers? →
- In 2023 SF City Attorney David Chiu investigated whether endorsed hospitals paid for inclusion; after subpoenas and a U.S. News lawsuit, an April 2025 settlement required U.S. News to post a disclaimer that it receives payments from ranked hospitals. Critics note rankings rely heavily on reputational peer-opinion surveys and exclude data such as Medicaid patients. Source: Wikipedia: U.S. News Best Hospitals Rankings →