<p>I checked national universities and schools like Stanford and Caltech are hurt by how the US News Ranking chooses to scale faculty resources.</p>
<p>Holy Cross and Bucknell tied at 32nd.</p>
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<p>Oh, what an absolute rubbish analysis. Pomona and Middlebury were exactly tied in peer assessment, so that can’t possibly account for why Middlebury would come out tied with Pomona despite scoring lower on some “objective measures” you favor.</p>
<p>The reason is, Middlebury spends more money, and US News loves schools that spend more money. </p>
<p>I say this not to defend Midd, but to point out the irrationality of the US News ranking which rewards inefficiency.</p>
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<p>Fixed that for you.</p>
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<p>You have it backwards. The majority of categories in which Pomona excels (admit rate, standardized test scores, top 10 percent) are inputs. These admissions criteria say nothing about how well Pomona educates its students. Spending money on faculty resources results in highly qualified, nationally recognized professors who have a direct affect on outputs (the qualifications and academic achievements of graduates). I’m not saying that Pomona doesn’t do an excellent job of educating students–quite the opposite. I am saying that admissions statistics have little to do with how well Pomona educates its students. Alumni giving rate also is an output. If graduates feel like the college provided them with a worthwhile academic experience, they’re much more likely to contribute money. That speaks volumes about overall satisfaction with their alma mater.</p>
<p>bclintock, my point with PA was not with Middlebury but with Pomona and Williams, Amherst, and Swarthmore. Pomona matches if not beats many of these in several factor but the PA weighs it down, and it’s a huge(biggest?) factor. </p>
<p>Arcardia- Rankings are about objective measures of a school. The factors you mentioned are just one thing that measure the immediate quality of the school, but Pomona remains exceedingly strong, if not the strongest, in outputs, such as retention rate and graduation rate. Alumni giving rate can be so easily manipulated(not accusing Midd of doing it, but I know of schools who have done that), and what exactly does it mean for the immediate student looking for a measure of quality of schools? Also, Pomona receives the most alumni funds of any LAC after Williams- it shouldn’t be just a measure of how many alumni give, but how much they give. </p>
<p>I feel your analysis about what AG means is looking too far into it. </p>
<p>Pomona spends the most on faculty resources, but again- it’s marked down by Cost of Living. Stanford, the third richest school, has some amazing faculty resources, yet only ranks 12 because it apparently doesn’t pay its faculty enough, despite the fact that 99.5% of the faculty is full time. Please tell me how any of the 19 schools that are apparently ranked above it spend more in sheer, objective numbers. Pomona is the richest LAC in the US per capita, and anyone knows of how many resources the school has, not just stockpiled away but constantly used to fund student life and the like. Pomona has some of the most distinguished faculty of any LAC, and Pomona graduates perform exceedingly well- among the top 5 LACs for graduate school placement, highest LAC med school acceptance rate, one of the highest mean LSATs, top per capita Fulbright Scholars, I could go on and on. </p>
<p>My points are:
+Pomona’s richness and resources are undermined by US New’s arbitrary method of calculating faculty resources, even though it is very clear of how exceptional it is.
+Pomona’s reputation is hurt by PA, which confirms a self-fulfilling prophecy of what the best schools are. Pomona has been able to break away from being 7-9 to coming to 4-5 by objective measures like admission rates and graduation rates, but it can not be 1-3 unless its PA is matched.</p>
<p>Debakian MJ, as a Pomona student, I honestly believe rankings aren’t that important.</p>
<p>Every school in the top 10 is basically tied in terms of overall performance. All that matters is that how much of a fit the school is for you. Everyone knows Pomona is a fantastic institution that is a peer of other similarly great institutions, not that it’s 4 and Williams is 1. </p>
<p>It’s important to distinguish that US News Ranking is just one ranking. Pomona does exceptional in other rankings as well, and all of this is just a confirmation of the quality of the place. Comparison isn’t the point- all of the top 10 schools are wonderful schools, period. I think we Sagehens should be proud to have chosen the place 
There isn’t any other place quite like it.</p>
<p>I am just happy that Wellesley is knocked off its perennial 4th place despite stats that didn’t support it. US News always has east coast bias and reflects on PA.</p>
<p>PolitcalJunkie- Regarding Reed- You’re right. They have an article on their website that discusses their decision not to participate in usnwr rankings so they don’t answer the questionnaires.</p>
<p>Does anyone know why Grinnell has fallen each of the last several years?</p>
<p>That usually means that the school had an … unusual positive year, or that some information was miscalculated in the better ranking.</p>
<p>@travisbickel, Grinnell’s acceptance rate was up for the class of 2015. That was probably (part of) the reason. I expect Grinnell to rank better next year because the acceptance rate was considerably lower for the class of 2016.</p>
<p>Also, I think that Grinnell doesn’t really concern itself with rankings as much as some other schools. I’ve heard rumblings that perhaps the new president is doing more to try to improve the school’s rankings, but historically, Grinnell has just tried to educate its students the best it could without worrying about how it compared to X other school on Y metric.</p>
<p>Yet another year where Pomona is grossly overrated. It doesn’t even deserve to be among the top 20 LACs- there’s nothing exceptional about it.</p>
<p>^ Haha funny, metronomic. I almost thought your post was serious for a second.</p>
<p>Any school that cheats its scores doesn’t deserve to be ranked. Shame on Pomona.</p>
<p>Oh good heavens Metronomic, the least you can do if you make a statement such as yours is to fact check it before you speak.
You are no better than a politician. Shame on you.</p>
<p>That’s Claremont McKenna you dolt, not Pomona.</p>