This category represents how many students return to Trinity for their sophomore year, how many graduate, how well Trinity performs relative to US News' predicted graduation rate, and a "social mobility" metric.
Graduation rate (17.6%) = the percentage of students who graduate within six years. Because the graduation rate is averaged over four cohorts, this metric is a lagging indicator – it does not represent today's students, but rather those who started their college careers as long ago as a decade (e.g., the rankings released in 2020 include the graduation rates of students who entered Trinity in the fall of 2010 through 2013)
Retention Rate (4.4%) = the percentage of students who continue at Trinity past their first year. This metric is also averaged over four cohorts (fall 2015 - fall 2018).
Graduation Rate Performance (8%) = how Trinity's actual graduation rates (of students who began in the fall of 2012 and 2013) compare to predicted graduation rates that US News calculates. Although US News does not publically disclose the exact methodology behind their predicted graduation rate, they do note that the prediction takes into account several characteristics of that entering class (such as test scores and, as a proxy for economic diversity, the proportion of students receiving a Pell Grant) and characteristics of the school (such as its expenditures).
Social Mobility (5%) = Trinity's graduation rate of Pell Grant recipients, adjusted by the proportion of students receiving Pell Grants. The formula also compares this graduation rate to the graduation rate of non-Pell Grant recipients.
Graduate Indebtedness (5%) = the percentage of graduates from the Class of 2019 who took out federal loans and the average amount of federal loans that they borrowed.
Subjective assessments of an institution comprise this category. Survey respondents are asked to rate the academic quality of a school on a scale from 1 (marginal) to 5 (distinguished).
Peer Assessment (20%) = the combined opinions of presidents, deans of admissions, and chief academic officers of other colleges and universities. For the survey conducted in 2020, the response rate was 36.4% of college officials surveyed.
-- High School Counselor Ratings (0%) = the average rating of a selected group of guidance counselors across the country. US News removed this indicator for the rankings released in 2019.
The following characteristics of faculty and courses during the prior academic year are combined into this category:
Admissions data from the prior year's entering class of first-year students comprise this category.
Test Scores (5%) = a combination of the average SAT Math and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing scores and the average ACT composite scores, weighted proportionally by the percentage of students who submitted either test.
Class Rank (2%) = the percentage of incoming first-year students who ranked within the top 10% of their high school class.
--Acceptance Rate (0%) = this metric was removed from the formula beginning with the fall 2018 ranking.
The higher a school's expenditures per student, the better that school will score on this category. Spending on instruction, academic support, student services, institutional support, research, and public service is divided by the number of full-time-equivalent students. The formula takes an average of two years, but is delayed by one year (i.e., the rankings released in the fall of 2020 cover spending per student in the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years).
The alumni giving rate is the percentage of undergraduate alumni who made a gift during a given academic year. The formula takes an average of two academic years, but is delayed by one year (i.e., the rankings released in the fall of 2020 consider alumni donors during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years).