<p>See <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=89519%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=89519</a></p>
<p>The list does not seem substantially different from last year's (and there is absolutely no reason why such a list should change dramatically).</p>
<p>where's wesleyan?</p>
<p>Subject to verification on Friday, this should be the new ranking for LACs</p>
<p>Ranking US News<br>
Schools ....'06 '05 '04
Williams ......... 1 1 1
Amherst ........ 2 2 2
Swarthmore .. 3 2 3
Wellesley ...... 4 4 4
Carleton ........ 5 5 4
Pomona ......... 6 5 4
Bowdoin ........ 6 7 10
Haverford ...... 8 9 9
Middlebury ..... 8 11 7
Davidson ....... 10 7 7
CMC ............ 10 13 12
Wesleyan ..... 12 9 11
Vassar .......... 13 12 14
WAS/LEE ....... 14 13 12
Colgate ......... 15 16 17
Grinnell ......... 15 16 15
Hamilton ......... 15 19 21
Harvey Mudd . 18 16 17
Smith ............ 19 13 15
Colby ............ 20 19 17</p>
<p>
[quote]
where's wesleyan?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I was wondering the same thing! This year's attending freshman SAT avg 700/700.</p>
<p>SAT's are not everything</p>
<p>"I was wondering the same thing! This year's attending freshman SAT avg 700/700."</p>
<p>Yes, but that does not seem to matter much in the US News rankings. Look at Harvey Mudd and Pomona rankings. Pomona has an SAT everage of 1450 that is 80 points higher than Wellesley, 60 points higher than Carleton, and who knows how much higher than Bowdoin's advertised rate. Pomona acceptance rate of 19% is exactly one half of Wellesley's 38%, 10 points better than Carleton, and 5 points better than Bowdoin. </p>
<p>Despite being the most selective LAC and having improved on every statistic possible, Pomona has now dropped two spots in the last two years, Bowdoin that has deteriorated every year since 2003 jumps from 10th to 6th.</p>
<p>At least, the school ranked fourth best LAC is no longer accepting close to 50% of all applicants as it did two years ago, and has remarkably emerged from the abysmal 50%-60% range for their class of top 10% students. </p>
<p>The US News has become an even bigger joke than it ever was, and that is no small feat. </p>
<p>PS Can someone explain what did Middlebury do last year to drop several spots and earn them back this year? Two years ago, Middlebury had one of its best improvements years, but last year numbers did not show much positive and several negative numbers. You ought to wonder about the integrity of those US News computers!</p>
<p>Xiggi, West Coast schools get so screwed. Stanford, Pomona, Berkeley,the west coast lacs including Puget Sound and Willamette.</p>
<p>The South was not immune: they were not too kind to Davidson. The school seems to have been on an upward trend for the past years, but the US News must have uncovered new whistles and bells to manage the results. </p>
<p>In the end the peer assessment is a potent equalizer for known deficiencies; if that fails there is always the graduation "expectation" that is nothing but a disguised penalty for schools with the highest SAT. Last but not least, the schools that do not have a couple of centuries under their belt suffer from the impact of smaller endowments. However, a fat wallet does bring a few measurable benefits. That said, Davidson seemed to do well in faculty resources. </p>
<p>Oh well, it should not come as a great surprise that geographical and historical cronyism is still alive and kicking!</p>
<p>
[quote]
the schools that do not have a couple of centuries under their belt suffer from the impact of smaller endowments.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The endowment is at least a legitimate indicator. After all, virtually all aspects of a college are driven by per student spending. The schools with the largest endowments have the highest per student expenditures. </p>
<p>The adage "follow the money" definitely applies to colleges.</p>
<p>Personally, if I were trying to decide between two equally appealing schools, I would probably pick the school with the larger per student endowment.</p>
<p>Want an example of endowment or lack thereof? Ask why Haverford does not have a swimming pool.</p>
<p>if you are gonna sell product, you need to make sure the product is conducive to most of your buyers -- which happen to live in the NE....what's the surprise? Heck, it happens in sports rankings, why not academe?</p>
<p>"The endowment is at least a legitimate indicator. After all, virtually all aspects of a college are driven by per student spending."</p>
<p>Endowment does indicate accumulated wealth, doesn't it? I do not disagree that spending per student must be a good indicator but is endowment a legitimate indicator or a mere theoretical one? </p>
<p>"The schools with the largest endowments have the highest per student expenditures."</p>
<p>Now, we are bringing the two elements together. In theory, this ought to be true. However, does this really corresponds to the US News reports? </p>
<p>The school ranked 1 for Financial Resources is Wellesley. Its endowment per student is about $490,000. Pomona with over $800,000 is ranked 4 in the same category. However, which schools ranks second: Scripps with slightly over $200,000 per student. Do we assume that Scripps spends more of its endowment? While I agree that, in theory and in general terms, a school with a larger endowment does have more capacity to spend, one can find a number of exceptions to that rule. </p>
<p>Turning to faculty resources, we can see that a school with one of the smallest endowment per capita is ranked 1, and that is Davidson. Washington and Lee is also ahead of Williams and Swarthmore. In turn, Wellesley that is ranked 1 in spending is only ranked 15 in faculty resources. </p>
<p>"Want an example of endowment or lack thereof? Ask why Haverford does not have a swimming pool."</p>
<p>As a matter of fact, are you sure that the expenses for a pool construction or maintenance are included in any category of US News that relates to Haverford?</p>
<p>Keep in mind that one Bowdoin and Midd do not require SATs, so the numbers they are able to present are very high but no not reflect the entire freshman class.</p>
<p>Uh... Bluebayou? In calculating the US news rankings, there's only one subjective element- the peer assessment. Exactly how/why does US News fix the other elements to skew the list to NE schools? </p>
<p>(Not that it freaking matters- seriously. It's a list of which schools are "best"- there's no difference between #1 and #25 because it all depends on which school a specific student would fit at)</p>
<p>I find it interesting that the rankings are hitting the newsstands before the website. You'd think they'd coordinate things.</p>
<p>Bluebayou and dstark: the peer assessment ranking is sufficient to skew the results away from west coast schools. Think about it: 63 colleges in the Boston metropolitan area alone. How many of those really know anything about Reed or Pomona? But they see people from those other schools every day at PTSA or next door. Or their friends' kids go there. </p>
<p>(You can see lists of colleges by state at this web site: <a href="http://www.50states.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.50states.com/</a> )</p>
<p>Yes, and I forgot about Reed, which always gets screwed.</p>
<p>Xiggi notes,"In the end the peer assessment is a potent equalizer for known deficiencies"</p>
<p>Response: I completely agree. I always felt that peer assessments is one of the most important factors for evaluatting a college. I also use three other factors in the US News and World Report</p>
<ol>
<li>Endowment and if possible, endowment per student ( which I have to figure out from stats)</li>
<li>6 year graduation rate</li>
<li>Freshmen return rate</li>
</ol>
<p>Endowment theoretically means better upkeep in facilities, endowed chairs, more money for scholarships etc. The Freshmen return rate and 6 year graduation rate indicates how well the students like or appreciate the education at the school. Most of the other items in the rating, I simply ignore. </p>
<p>I do agree that the overall rating by US News and World Report is fairly worthless except that the higher the rating , the better perceived the school becomes,which means more applications. I guess we have a lot of lemmings in society.</p>
<p>In addition to the peer assessment, US News can show subjectivity by designing its methodology to benefit or penalize the schools. </p>
<p>Unless they changed it this year, this should be close to the distribution of factors. </p>
<p>Peer assessment survey 25%
Acceptance rate 1.5%
High school class standingtop 10% 6%
SAT/ACT scores 7.5%
Faculty compensation 7%
Percent faculty with top terminal degree 3%
Percent full-time faculty 1%
Student/faculty ratio 1%
Class size, 1-19 students 6%
Class size, 50+ students 2%
Average graduation rate 16%
Average freshman retention rate 4%
Average educational expenditures per student 10%
Average alumni giving rate 5%
Graduation rate performance 5%
Total 100%</p>
<p>Taxguy, I have a compilation of the 2004 endowments -as listed by Nacubo- for the top 50 LACS. If there is an interest, I'll post it later.</p>