CA Think Tank College Rank Report

[forzagiovanni]

<p>For those interested in rankings, here it is:</p>

<p>Princeton first in The Consus Group's university rankings</p>

<p>LOS ANGELES, California—Princeton University ranked first in The Consus Group's annual survey of undergraduate universities. Harvard and Yale tied for second, with Dartmouth and The University of Chicago completing the top five.</p>

<p>The Consus Group generally analyzes contracts, industries, and companies. Occasionally, however, TCG displays its analytical expertise on other subjects of interest to the business and legal communities. Its university rankings are one of these periodic exercises.</p>

<p>TCG determined the nation's best undergraduate universities using a sophisticated methodology. This approach canvassed numerous factors, including: published rankings, selectivity, placement and salary statistics, and class yields.</p>

<p>Published Rankings: A proxy for prestige, published rankings proved a useful metric for assessing a university's reputation. To eliminate the vagaries of published rankings, The Consus Group incorporated both current and historical ratings from numerous sources. </p>

<p>Selectivity: TCG measured the quality of universities' admitted candidates using SAT scores, high school GPAs, and the percentage of applicants admitted. Typically, the best schools attract many of the best candidates—providing another proxy for prestige. </p>

<p>Placement & Salary: Placement and salary statistics provided objective measures of universities' performance placing their graduates. To reduce annual fluctuations in placement and salary statistics, TCG used current and historical placement and salary statistics. </p>

<p>Yield: Yield measured the percentage of admitted candidates actually matriculating to the admitting university—another indication of a school's appeal. </p>

<p>While many university rankings fluctuate wildly from year to year, TCG's methodology produces a stable, accurate picture of America's best undergraduate universities.</p>

<p>About TCG</p>

<p>Founded by attorneys and management consultants, The Consus Group provides crucial intelligence about contracts, industries, and companies. TCG's research products clarify complicated legal agreements, explain industry structures and relationships, and provide unparalleled competitive intelligence. TCG also provides complementary professional services, including customized contract and industry analyses.</p>

<p>The Consus Group's intelligence products are state-of-the-art. TCG uses a sophisticated infrastructure to amass and process enormous amounts of information from many sources. This information is compiled in massive databases, dissected with powerful statistical tools, and synthesized by experts.</p>

[haon]

<p>can you post a link to the ranking?</p>

[CC_Admin]

<p>i second that notion.</p>

[hormesis3]

<p>It's funny since they say their method is stable year to year but the list currently posted on their site shows that the rankings change quite a bit (assuming that the above news release is an updated ranking) (University of Chicago from #48 to #5 in one year?).</p>

<p>They seem to use a hodgepodge of rankings (including US News, Gorman report which has no established methodology), selectivity (which includes % in top 10% which will boost the UC schools) and yield. Kind of a US News hybrid:</p>

<p>The Consus Group uses the following methodology to compile its annual college rankings:</p>

<p>Published Rankings: Published Rankings reflect current and historical ratings by numerous sources, including: U.S. News, Gourman Report, etc. An institution's aggregate published ranking comprises 50% of its overall score. </p>

<p>Selectivity: Selectivity measures the quality of schools' admitted candidates. Selectivity is based on the percent of applicants admitted, SAT scores, and the percent of admitted applicants in the top 10% of their high school classes. An institution's composite selectivity comprises 45% of its overall score. </p>

<p>Yield: Yield reflects the percentage of admitted candidates that matriculate to the admitting university. An institution's yield comprises 5% of its overall score. </p>

<p>While many university rankings fluctuate wildly from year to year, TCG's comprehensive methodology produces a stable, accurate picture of America's best colleges and universities
<a href="http://www.consusgroup.com/news/rankings/colleges/methodology.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.consusgroup.com/news/rankings/colleges/methodology.asp&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Not too impressive of a Think Tank if you ask me.</p>

<p>A far as rankings (<a href="http://www.consusgroup.com/news/rankings/colleges/colleges.asp%5B/url%5D):"&gt;http://www.consusgroup.com/news/rankings/colleges/colleges.asp):&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Rank
Institution
Score</p>

<p>1
Harvard University
1.000</p>

<p>2
Princeton University
0.975</p>

<p>3
Stanford University
0.946</p>

<p>4
Columbia University
0.926</p>

<p>5
California Institute of Technology
0.922</p>

<p>6
Yale University
0.913</p>

<p>7
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
0.877</p>

<p>8
Brown University
0.835</p>

<p>9
University of California, Berkeley
0.806</p>

<p>10
University of California, Los Angeles
0.785</p>

<p>11
University of Pennsylvania
0.784</p>

<p>12
Dartmouth College
0.776</p>

<p>13
Rice University
0.770</p>

<p>14
Duke University
0.755</p>

<p>15
Swarthmore College
0.740</p>

<p>16
Amherst College
0.735</p>

<p>17
University of California, San Diego
0.727</p>

<p>18
Williams College
0.720</p>

<p>19
Georgetown University
0.719</p>

<p>20
Cornell University
0.704</p>

<p>21
Northwestern University
0.700</p>

<p>22
Pomona College
0.695</p>

<p>23
U.S. Naval Academy
0.694</p>

<p>24
University of California, Santa Barbara
0.690</p>

<p>25
University of California, Santa Cruz
0.683</p>

<p>26*
University of California, Davis
0.681</p>

<p>26*
Harvey Mudd College
0.681</p>

<p>28
Haverford College
0.672</p>

<p>29
U.S. Military Academy
0.666</p>

<p>30
University of Notre Dame
0.664</p>

<p>31
The Johns Hopkins University
0.658</p>

<p>32
Washington University
0.656</p>

<p>33
University of Virginia
0.644</p>

<p>34
Middlebury College
0.643</p>

<p>35
Bowdoin College
0.642</p>

<p>36
Claremont McKenna College
0.638</p>

<p>37
Washington & Lee University
0.635</p>

<p>38
Davidson College
0.629</p>

<p>39
U.S. Air Force Academy
0.621</p>

<p>40
Tufts University
0.612</p>

<p>41
Barnard College
0.595</p>

<p>42
College of William & Mary
0.593</p>

<p>43
Wesleyan University
0.591</p>

<p>44
Carnegie Mellon
0.582</p>

<p>45
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
0.578</p>

<p>46
Colgate University
0.560</p>

<p>47
Wellesley College
0.559</p>

<p>48
The University of Chicago
0.556</p>

<p>49
Vassar College
0.547</p>

<p>50
New York University
0.546</p>

<p>51
Colby College
0.543</p>

<p>52
Carleton College
0.536</p>

<p>53
Emory University
0.531</p>

<p>54
University of Southern California
0.527</p>

<p>55
Grinnell College
0.524</p>

<p>56
Case Western Reserve University
0.522</p>

<p>57
Brandeis University
0.521</p>

<p>58
Cooper Union for Advancement of Science and Art
0.520</p>

<p>59
Wake Forest University
0.519</p>

<p>60
Boston College
0.518</p>

<p>61
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
0.517</p>

<p>62
Vanderbilt University
0.505</p>

<p>63
Pepperdine University
0.492</p>

<p>64
Bryn Mawr College
0.488</p>

<p>65
Macalester College
0.485</p>

<ul>
<li>Ties</li>
</ul>

<p>Other Distinguished Institutions</p>

<p>Bard College</p>

<p>Bates Colleges</p>

<p>Boston University</p>

<p>Brigham Young University</p>

<p>Bucknell University</p>

<p>College of the Holy Cross</p>

<p>Connecticut College</p>

<p>George Washington University</p>

<p>Hamilton College</p>

<p>Lehigh University</p>

<p>Mount Holyoke College</p>

<p>Oberlin College</p>

<p>Scripps College</p>

<p>Smith College</p>

<p>University of Florida</p>

<p>University of Rochester</p>

<p>University of Texas, Austin</p>

<p>Whitman College</p>

[hormesis3]

<p>Ah Ok, the press release is from February 18, 2002 (<a href="http://www.consusgroup.com/news/press/2002/pr_2002_02_18.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.consusgroup.com/news/press/2002/pr_2002_02_18.asp&lt;/a&gt;). So U of C goes from #5 to #48 in two years. So much for the The Consus Group's statement of "While many university rankings fluctuate wildly from year to year, TCG's methodology produces a stable, accurate picture of America's best undergraduate universities." Incredible!!!</p>

<p>Forzagiovanni where do you find this stuff?</p>

[calidan]

<p>I find it hilarious that they put places like UC Santa Barbara and UC santa Cruz above places like Johns Hopkins, UVa, and Chicago.</p>

[Mr.B]

<p>School rankings are so limited in what they can evaluate particuarly as it applies to the individual student. There is no best school!</p>

[carolyn]

<p>I find it hilarious that they put places like UC Santa Barbara and UC santa Cruz above places like Johns Hopkins, UVa, and Chicago.</p>

<p>Not to mention Pepperdine right after U of Michigan and Vanderbilt but above Bryn Mawr and Macalester. :)</p>

[carolyn]

<p>I seriously think that one of these days I am going to publish my own "rankings" of US colleges/universities. Surely I have just as much insight into the workings of higher education as a bunch of "attorneys and management consultants."</p>

[calidan]

<p>Do it! That would be so awesome, and I might actually pay attention to them (instead of all of the abritrary ones that are out there). ;)</p>

[forzagiovanni]

<p>Atlantic Monthly ranks top 10</p>

<ol>
<li>MIT </li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>California Institute of Technology</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Brown<br></li>
<li>Swarthmore.</li>
</ol>