Brown Ranked #4 Best Undergraduate Teaching -- US NEWS

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brown University
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<p>Best Undergraduate Teaching National Universities
Best Undergraduate Teaching Methodology </p>

<p>Many colleges have a strong commitment to teaching undergraduates instead of graduate-level research. Based on a survey conducted in spring 2012, all the schools on these lists are ones that received the most votes from top college administrators as paying a particular focus on undergraduate teaching.</p>

<p>•National Universities</p>

<p>Save Rank School<br>
#1 Dartmouth College
Hanover, NH</p>

<p>#1 Princeton University
Princeton, NJ</p>

<p>#3 Miami University–Oxford
Oxford, OH</p>

<p>#4 Brown University
Providence, RI</p>

<p>#4 Yale University
New Haven, CT</p>

<p>#6 College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, VA</p>

<p>#6 University of Michigan–Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI</p>

<p>#8 Duke University
Durham, NC</p>

<p>#8 University of California–Berkeley
Berkeley, CA</p>

<p>#8 University of Chicago
Chicago, IL</p>

<p>#8 University of Maryland–Baltimore County
Baltimore, MD</p>

<p>#8 University of Notre Dame
Notre Dame, IN</p>

<p>#13 University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC</p>

<p>#13 Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC</p>

<p>#15 Stanford University
Stanford, CA</p>

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<p>As happy as I am to see how high Brown placed, this “ranking” is literally just based on a survey of high level admins asking them which schools are focused on undergrad teaching?</p>

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<p>How is Berkeley so high?</p>

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<p>And the ranking for the most weighed component of the US News “rankings” (academic reputation) is based on a sruvey of college administrators??? Really no different.</p>

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<p>While USNWR isnt great either, most weighted factor is better than only factor</p>

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<p>I do not agree. For the overwhelming majority of undergraduate students, the ranking for undergraduate teaching would have far more impact on their college experience than “academic reputation” and faculty resources/endowment and other factors US News weighs…Undergrads need access to top professors to learn how to think, analyze, communicate and get ready for grad school, professional school or the business world. They also need good counselors and guidance to shape their curriculum choices and gain access to potential research opportuntiies. </p>

<p>Many major reserach universities with the largest endowments do not necessarily allocate more funds or educational resources to undergraduate teaching…Considering the size of the Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, MIT endowments, they do not necessarily have a much different proportion of smaller classes than other top liberal arts colleges and national universities. Major research universities want to funnel money into research, hire superstar faculty and fund their graduate programs. That is why so many of them have huge classes for popular introductory undergraduate courses like econ, comp sci, history, calculus…</p>

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<p>I’m not arguing whether or not undergraduate teaching is more important than “excellence” or whatever USNWR ranks on, but this ranking system doesn’t account for any of the stuff you talk about. It’s simply a survey asking which schools “focus” on undergrads without any explanation as to what that means. Then they slap a “best” rating. If the article was “survey of top level admins reveals Dartmouth as most known for undergraduate focus” I would have no problem with it.</p>