Collection of self-styled undergraduate rankings (an exercise in...Boredom)

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Princeton Review rating (Academic + Selectivity + Quality of life + Financial aid rating) </p>

<p>/396 </p>

<ol>
<li>Olin – 395</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna – 394</li>
<li>Bowdoin – 392</li>
<li>Middlebury – 392</li>
<li>Scripps – 392</li>
<li>Dartmouth – 391</li>
<li>Pomona – 391</li>
<li>Yale – 388</li>
<li>Carleton – 388</li>
<li>Haverford – 388</li>
<li>Davidson – 388</li>
<li>Rice – 387</li>
<li>Vanderbilt – 387</li>
<li>Macalester – 387</li>
<li>Reed – 387</li>
<li>Smith – 387</li>
<li>Wellesley – 386</li>
<li>Washington University in St. Louis – 386 </li>
<li>Swarthmore – 385</li>
<li>Stanford – 385</li>
<li>Grinnell – 384</li>
<li>Brown – 383</li>
<li>Wesleyan – 382</li>
<li>Columbia – 382</li>
<li>Pitzer – 382</li>
<li>Mount Holyoke – 382</li>
<li>Chicago – 381</li>
<li>Penn – 380</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd – 379</li>
<li>Princeton – 379</li>
<li>Bryn Mawr – 378</li>
<li>Gettysburg – 378</li>
<li>Barnard – 377</li>
<li>Vassar – 377</li>
<li>Cornell – 375</li>
<li>Amherst – 372</li>
<li>Wake Forest – 372</li>
<li>Kenyon – 372</li>
<li>MIT – 369</li>
<li>Williams – 368</li>
<li>Rhodes – 368</li>
<li>Caltech – 367</li>
<li>Georgetown – 367</li>
<li>Bucknell – 367</li>
<li>Centre College – 361</li>
<li>Harvard – 358</li>
<li>Kalamazoo – 355</li>
<li>Duke – 355</li>
<li>Oberlin – 354</li>
<li>Sewanee – 351</li>
</ol>

<p>*I looked up the first fifty colleges I could think of for this “ranking.” </p>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>PR best value (only ten colleges listed):</p>

<ol>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Cooper Union</li>
<li>Vassar</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="http://www.princetonreview.com/schoolList.aspx?id=801"&gt;http://www.princetonreview.com/schoolList.aspx?id=801&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Alumni Factor (227 colleges):</p>

<ol>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Washington and Lee University</li>
<li>U.S. Naval Academy</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>U.S. Military Academy</li>
<li> Rice</li>
<li>Claremont McKenna</li>
<li>Centre College</li>
<li>Coast Guard Academy</li>
<li>Citadel Military College of South Carolina</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd</li>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>College of the Holy Cross</li>
<li>Georgia Tech</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Middlebury</li>
<li>Air Force Academy</li>
<li>Davidson</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>Sewanee</li>
<li>University of Virginia</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=SU-9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT3&dq=alumni+factor&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mm2tU67DBJGKqAaW9IK4AQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=alumni%20factor&f=false"&gt;http://books.google.com/books?id=SU-9AAAAQBAJ&pg=PT3&dq=alumni+factor&hl=en&sa=X&ei=mm2tU67DBJGKqAaW9IK4AQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=alumni%20factor&f=false&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Forbes:</p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Pomona</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Yale</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>Swarthmore</li>
<li>West Point</li>
<li>Harvard</li>
<li>Williams</li>
<li>MIT</li>
<li>Penn</li>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Amherst</li>
<li>Chicago</li>
<li>Duke</li>
<li>Dartmouth</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Caltech</li>
<li>Cornell</li>
<li>Bowdoin</li>
<li>Washington and Lee</li>
<li>Cal Berkeley</li>
<li>Wellesley</li>
<li>Notre Dame</li>
<li>Tufts</li>
</ol>

<p><a href="http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/"&gt;http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Arithmetic means of placements for colleges that make all of the lists (PR rating + PR best value + Alumni Factor rank + Forbes):</p>

<ol>
<li>Yale – (8 + 4 + 4 + 4) / 4 = 5</li>
<li>Princeton – (29 + 5 + 1 + 3) / 4 = 9.5</li>
<li>Pomona – (6 + 10 + 23 + 2) / 4 = 10.25</li>
<li>Swarthmore – (19 + 3 + 21 + 6) / 4 = 12.25</li>
<li>Amherst – (36 + 9 + 20 + 13) / 4 = 19.5<br></li>
<li>MIT – (39 + 8 + 26 + 10) / 4 = 20.75</li>
<li>Williams – (40 + 1 + 40 + 9) / 4 = 22.5</li>
<li>Harvard – (46 + 2 + 35 + 8) / 4 = 22.75</li>
<li>Vassar – (33 + 7 + 70 + 27) / 4 = 34.25</li>
</ol>

<p>Some colleges that don't appear in PR's 10 best value list (PR rating + Alumni rank + Forbes):</p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford: (19 + 12 + 1) / 3 = 10.67</li>
<li>Dartmouth – (6 + 22 + 16) / 3 = 14.67</li>
<li>Bowdoin – (3 + 55 + 20) / 3 = 26</li>
<li>Columbia – (23 + 106 + 5) / 3 = 44.67</li>
<li>Chicago – (27 + 136 + 14) / 3 = 59</li>
</ol>

<p>Have fun, tear to shreds. I forgot to filter the public schools out of the Alumni Factor and Forbes rankings, which would have made the comparisons "apple-to-apple." Because private schools dominate both rankings, my misstep should not have changed the final list. I'll fix it if someone feels strongly about it.</p>

<p>Adding the Kiplinger Best Value and U.S. News rankings would lead me to separate universities and LACs. Princeton and Yale and Pomona and Swarthmore would remain at the top of their categories. </p>

<p>Removing the Princeton Review rating would pull Princeton ahead of Yale, Swarthmore ahead of Pomona, and Harvard ahead of Williams.</p>

<p>TL;DR: These rankings change every year, and you can manipulate them every year to great effect. </p>

2

<p>Reopening this thread. No idea why it was closed. Have fun all.</p>

3

<h2>Much appreciated. </h2>

<p>List with Kiplinger Best Value and U.S. News rankings added:</p>

<p>Arithmetic means of placements for colleges that are in each ranking:</p>

<p>Universities:</p>

<ol>
<li>Yale – (8 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 1 + 3) / 6 = 4.00</li>
<li>Princeton – (29 + 5 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 1) / 6 = 6.83</li>
<li>Harvard – (46 + 2 + 35 + 8 + 4 + 2) / 6 = 16.16</li>
<li>MIT – (39 + 8 + 26 + 10 + 7 + 8) / 6 = 16.33</li>
</ol>

<p>Liberal arts colleges:</p>

<ol>
<li>Pomona – (6 + 10 + 23 + 2 + 2 + 4) / 6 = 7.83</li>
<li>Swarthmore – (19 + 3 + 21 + 6 + 3 + 3) / 6 = 9.16</li>
<li>Amherst – (36 + 9 + 20 + 13 + 5 + 2) / 6 = 14.16<br></li>
<li>Williams – (40 + 1 + 40 + 9 + 1 + 4) / 6 = 15.83</li>
<li>Vassar – (33 + 7 + 70 + 27 + 13 + 13) / 6 = 27.16</li>
</ol>

<p>Not in PR Best Value list:</p>

<p>Universities:</p>

<ol>
<li>Stanford: (19 + 12 + 1 + 7 + 5) / 5 = 8.80</li>
<li>Dartmouth – (6 + 22 + 16 + 13 + 10) / 5 = 13.40</li>
<li>Brown – (22 + 38 + 12 + 12 + 14) / 5 = 19.60</li>
<li>Caltech – (42 + 39 + 18 + 9 + 10) / 5 = 23.60</li>
<li>Columbia – (23 + 106 + 5 + 6 + 4) / 5 = 28.80</li>
<li>Chicago – (27 + 136 + 14 + 18 + 5) / 5 = 39.20</li>
</ol>

<p>LACs:</p>

<ol>
<li>Wellesley – (17 + 15 + 23 + 16 + 7) / 5 =15.60</li>
<li>Bowdoin – (3 + 55 + 20 + 6 + 4) / 5 = 17.60</li>
<li>Carleton – (8 + 48 + 45 + 12 + 7) / 5 = 24.00</li>
<li>Harvey Mudd – (29 + 11 + 52 + 36 + 12) / 5 = 28.00</li>
<li>Smith – (12 + 78 + 59 + 40 + 20) / 5 = 41.80</li>
</ol>

<p>These colleges–in theory–have among the best inputs and best outputs. </p>

<p>Student and alumni satisfaction, which the Princeton Review and Alumni Factor purport to measure, are two of the better proxies for quality of education. One can argue that the highest-scoring students have the highest expectations for college. If that’s so, the rankings for the top privates are deflated.</p>

<p>I can think of a few objections. Probably the most durable: people measure satisfaction (and success) differently because of their different socioeconomic and scholastic backgrounds. If someone goes to MIT, he will not think of “intellectual development” in the way that he would have thought of it had he gone to Princeton. If we start from that premise, rankings based on the college experience are untenable, and we’re stuck with U.S. News. Relativism has not yielded a solid philosophy. </p>

4

<p>Strange that people heed the likes of the QS, ARWU, THE, and Washington Monthly rankings but not these.</p>