Barron's Profiles of American Colleges - 1969

<p>I thought that many of you might be interested in this ranking of schools from Barron's Profiles of American Colleges (1969). Things sure have changed!</p>

<p>
[quote]
Most Competitive
Most Competitive, as defined by Barron’s, include “schools in the country whose admission standards are most rigorous, and in which the intellectual caliber of the student body appears to be the highest. In general, these schools want students who rank in the top 10-25 percent of their graduating class; median SAT scores of 675-800; A to B+ average. Usually, also, these colleges can admit only a small percentage of those applying.” </p>

<p>Amherst College, Mass.
Bryn Mawr College, Pa.
California Institute of Technology, Calif.
Columbia College of Columbia University, N.Y.
Dartmouth College, N. H.
Harvard University, Mass.
Jackson College for Women, Mass.
John Hopkins University, Md.
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, Mass.
Mount Holyoke College, Mass.
New College, Fla.
Pembroke College of Brown University, R.I.
Pomona College, Calif.
Princeton University, N.J.
Radcliffe College, Mass.
Rice University, Tex.
Smith Coll., Mass.
Stanford University, Calif.
Swarthmore College, Pa.
Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, N.Y.
Wellesley Coll., Mass.
Wesleyan University, Conn.
Williams College, Mass.</p>

<h2>Yale University, Conn. </h2>

<p>Highly Competitive
Highly Competitive include colleges with students who are in “at least the top 20 to 30 percent of their class; SAT medians range from 600 to 675; and the high school averages are usually at last B+ (or slightly lower averages are counterbalanced by particularly high exam scores).” Furthermore, to provide for finer distinctions within this category, plusses (+) have been added before some entries. “Schools so marked have the most stringent admission criteria in the group; most were almost in the ‘Most Competitive’ category.</p>

<p>Alleghemy College, Pa.
Antioch College, Ohio
Bard College, N.Y.
+ Barnard Coll., N.Y.
Bates College, Me
Bennington College, Vt.
Boston College, Mass.
Bowdoin College, Me.
+ Brandeis University, Mass.
+ Brown University, Mass.
Bucknell University, Pa.
+ Carleton College, Minn.
+ Carnegie Mellon University, Pa.
+ Case Inst. Of Technology, Ohio
Claremont Men’s Coll., Calif.
Clark University, Mass.
Colby College, Me.
Colgate University, N.Y.
College of the Holy Cross, Mass.
Connecticut College, Conn.
Cornell University, N.Y.
Davidson College, N.C.
Denison University, Ohio
Dickinson College, Pa.
Duke University, N.C.
General Motors Inst., Mich.
Georgetown Univ., Washington, D.C.
Goucher College, Md.
Grinnell College, Iowa
Hamilton College, N.Y.
Harpur Coll., N.Y. (State University of N.Y. at Binghamton)
+ Harvey Mudd College, Calif.
+ Haverford College, Pa.
Hobart Coll., N.Y.
Illinois Institute of Technology, Ill.
Kalamazoo College, Mich.
Kenyon College, Ohio
Lafayette College, Pa.
Lawrence University, Wis.
+ Lehigh University, Pa.
Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart, N.Y.
+ Middlebury College, Vt.
Northwestern University, Ill.
+ Oberlin College, Ohio
Occidental College, Calif.
+ Reed College, Ore.
Rensseaer Polytechnic Inst., N.Y.
+ St. John’s College, Md.
Sarah Lawrence College, N.Y.
School of Engineering & Applied Science of Columbia University, N.Y.
Shimer College, Ill.
Skidmore College, N.Y.
State University of New York at Albany, N.Y.
State University of New York College at Stony Brook, N.Y.
Trinity College, Conn.
Trinity College, Washington, D.C.
Tufts College of Tufts University, Mass.
Union College, N.Y.
U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo.
U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Conn.
U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, N.Y.
U.S. Military Academy, N.Y.
U.S. Naval Academy, Md.
+ University of Chicago, Ill.
+ University of Pennsylvania, Pa.
University of Rochester, N.Y.
University of Virginia, Va.
Vanderbilt University, Tenn.
+ Vassar College, N.Y.
Washington & Lee University, Va.
Washington Univ., Mo.
Wells College, N.Y.
Wheaton College, Mass.
William Smith College, N.Y.
Worchester Polytechnic Inst., Mass.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Barrons has been doing this stuff since 1969? Sheesh! Time to get a life!</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/member.php?u=12902%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/member.php?u=12902&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Oh, that was the year <em>I</em> entered college. I don't recall anyone I knew (from a highly competitive high school) even looking at this. But, my school was not on the list (no surprises there!!).</p>

<p>Thanks for the list. To be honest, I don't see that many big changes.</p>

<p>There are some interesting stories on that list. New College of Florida is one. It was super competitive when it first opened...kind of like Olin today.</p>

<p>It's interesting to see the women's colleges.</p>

<p>It's interesting to see how incredibly northeast-centric the lists were back in the day.</p>

<p>BTW, this was a great way to "rank" colleges, simply by broad groupings.</p>

<p>Here are a few surprises: Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, and Bowdoin were listed in the "highly competitive" section--and they didn't even get pluses (while Lehigh, St. John's and Brandeis did).</p>

<p>UPenn also was ranked in the second category (although they had a plus).</p>

<p>Actually, I think it's more interesting how little has changed in almost 40 years. (W/re the SAT scores, remember this is pre-recentering in an era of generally lower scores. Also pre- a lot of grade inflation.) I never heard anything about Jackson College for Women or the Webb Institute, however. It's also funny that they have only three public universities -- two SUNYs (not the ones any smart people I knew went to) and UVa. I wonder how SUNY Albany made the list, and not Michigan or Berkeley. In 1969, it wasn't even a popular campus in the SUNY system, and Michigan and Berkeley were certainly at least on a par with UVa. (Heck, in 1969 all anyone wanted for the SUNY system was to make it more like the UC system. Explicitly.)</p>

<p>EDIT: Duke and Georgetown have come up in the world A LOT since 1969. Neither was on my snooty radar then.</p>

<p>On the public universities, keep in mind that "prestige" was determined by where rich folk from New York went to college. Thus, it really didn't matter how good Mich and the UC Berkeley were. This was largely before the population explosion in California, back when the Cleavers still lived in the valley.</p>

<p>Duke and Vandy were good regional schools. UPenn and Brown were good solid universities, but not designer brand names. Remember, the first year of Ivy League athletic competition wasn't until 1956-57.</p>

<p>"EDIT: Duke and Georgetown have come up in the world A LOT since 1969. Neither was on my snooty radar then."</p>

<p>Well, there is that little matter of basketball....</p>

<p>Actually, I was applying to colleges in late 1969 (entered in fall of 1970), and probably used that book or something similar to it. At the time, Berkeley was a decidedly unpopular destination, especially with parents, due to issues related to campus activism -- 1969 was the year of People's Park. UC Davis had turned into the destination for top students, and the newly-opened UC Santa Cruz campus was very much favored and tough to get into. </p>

<p>However, the UC campuses were not by any means easy to get into-- though I don't know how they might have compared to other colleges on the list.</p>

<p>Here are some stats from the time:
college, % admitted, yield, avg. SATs</p>

<p>SUNY Albany 43 40 1260
SUNY Binghamton 48 35 1239
SUNY Buffalo 36 47 1167
SUNY Stony Brook 49 49 1176
U Michigan 65 63 1203
U Calif- Berkeley 72 50 1177
U Calif- Santa Cruz 43 74 1237
U Virginia 57 61 1203</p>

<p>"Well, there is that little matter of basketball...."</p>

<p>Yeah it is amazing how a few guys, some of whom couldn't read when they showed up on campus (and a few who might not have been able to read when they left), were able to boost the academic standing of these schools. Remember that the next time anyone starts complaining about the money spent on sports. Do you think the same amount of money spent on the English department would have had the same impact?</p>

<p>Absolutely not! In my day, (and much because of Lou Carneseca), St. John's was considered - in all ways - heads and shoulders above Georgetown, which was best known for teaching Bulgarian to fourth-level U.S. bureaucrats at night (and firing divorced lay teachers who remarried - that's how I got to study with my (and Interesteddad's) beloved Russian professor). Oh, and employing Jesuit priests on the cheap to teach while soaking the students for as much money as they could get out of them.</p>

<p>Here's some more:</p>

<p>Brandeis 20 59 1339
Brown 24 53 1319
Cornell 36 41 1342
Duke 52 49 1278
Georgetown 41 42 1246
Lehigh 51 50 1270
U Penn 41 51 1273
Vanderbilt 76 45 1224</p>

<p>For multi-college U's, stats are for arts & sciences colleges</p>

<p>I remember that in 1969 Stony Brook considered itself to be "The Berkeley of the East".</p>

<p>Somebody finally got it.</p>

<p>Heh, heh that's why U Penn was my safety in those days. What's Jackson College for Women?</p>

<p>Jackson was (and IS) part of Tufts.</p>

<p><a href="http://ase.tufts.edu/faculty-handbook/chapter1.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://ase.tufts.edu/faculty-handbook/chapter1.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Most Competitive
Most Competitive, as defined by Barron’s, include “schools in the country whose admission standards are most rigorous, and in which the intellectual caliber of the student body appears to be the highest. In general, these schools want students who rank in the top 10-25 percent of their graduating class; median SAT scores of 675-800; A to B+ average. Usually, also, these colleges can admit only a small percentage of those applying.” </p>

<p>Amherst College, Mass.
Bryn Mawr College, Pa.
California Institute of Technology, Calif.
Columbia College of Columbia University, N.Y.
Dartmouth College, N. H.
Harvard University, Mass.
Jackson College for Women, Mass.
John Hopkins University, Md.
Massachusetts Inst. of Technology, Mass.
Mount Holyoke College, Mass.
New College, Fla.
Pembroke College of Brown University, R.I.
Pomona College, Calif.
Princeton University, N.J.
Radcliffe College, Mass.
Rice University, Tex.
Smith Coll., Mass.
Stanford University, Calif.
Swarthmore College, Pa.
Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, N.Y.
Wellesley Coll., Mass.
Wesleyan University, Conn.
Williams College, Mass.
Yale University, Conn.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Median SAT scores of 675-800 and usually admitting only a small percentage of students? Barron's must have had some kind a twisted sense of humor, or very strange definition of median scores and what cosntitute a "small" percentage! A good number of those schools could not get a 675 median AFTER recentering, and would be happy to admit more than 50% TODAY. What a joke!</p>

<p>Students at Albany and Binghampton for a brief moment in time were stronger than those at Berkeley, Michigan, and UVA.
I wonder what would have happened if the top 4 SUNYs had put in a simple rule like the UCs- can't apply unless you are in the top 10-12% of the class?</p>

<p>I hope it's a typo, but it's always been Johns Hopkins... sigh.</p>