There are several lists available, many of which have considerable overlap. I wish I knew the actual metrics they employed to evaluate the schools. Is food a consideration in your child’s search? What schools do you think have the best food? Which that you’ve visited have the worst?
Niche:
- UCLA
- Virginia Tech
- The Culinary Institute of America
- Bates
- Bowdoin
- Washington U St. Louis
- Wesleyan
- UMass
- California Baptist University
- James Madison University
bestvalueschools:
- Bowdoin
- Virginia Tech
- UCLA
- James Madison University
- Cornell
- UMass
- Vanderbilt
- Washington U St. Louis
- Kennesaw State University
- Bates
Princeton Review:
- UMass
- Bowdoin
- Washington U St. Louis
- St. Olaf College
- James Madison University
- Virginia Tech
- Cornell
- Saint Ansel College
- Bryn Mawr
- Bates
thedailymeal:
- Duke
- Columbia
- Liberty
- Bowdoin
- Northwestern
- Johns Hopkins
- NYU
- Occidental College
- Boston University
- Wellesley College
businessinsider:
- UCLA
- Virginia Tech
- Washington U St. Louis
- The Culinary Institute of America
- Bowdoin
- Bates
- UMass
- California Baptist University
- James Madison University
- University of Georgia
thestreet:
- UMass
- Bowdoin
- Cornell
- Virginia Tech
- St. Olaf College
- College of the Atlantic
- James Madison University
- Saint Anselm College
- Washington U St. Louis
- Bryn Mawr
collegerank:
- Kent State University
- Bowdoin
- Cornell
- Georgetown
- Emory
- University of Pennsylvania
- UCLA
- NYU
- Boston University
- Washington U St. Louis
Any list that doesn’t contain UMASS should be tossed out of hand.
@frozencustard UMass will be our last visit over April vacation. I don’t know if their food will be enough to bring them to the top of my son’s list.
Bowdoin is on every list
UMass is listed on all but 2
WashU listed on all except 1
What does thedailymeal do differently than everyone else? Did they not get the memo to cheat off of everyone elses paper…?
Bowdoin is listed on all of the lists.
@Time2Shine : Is there a sub-list of best surf and turf schools ?
Here’s 2 more lists
Travel & Leisure
- Stanford
- Bowdoin
- Va Tech
- St Olaf
- Bryn Mawr
- Wash U
- UMASS Amherst
- Vandy
- Middlebury
- UCLA
Bon Apetiit - criteria was healthy
- Sterling
- UMASS Amherst
- Pitt
- U Montana
- College of the Holy Cross
- Ga Tech
- Wisconsin - Madison
Niche uses a combination of price and student surveys.
UCLA’s presence in 4 of the 7 lists is based on the dining halls in its dorms, which is relevant for the ~1/3 of the undergraduates who live there. The other dining options on campus are decidedly meh.
Sterling is a college in Vermont that only awards degrees related to environmental science/sustainability. Makes sense that the food is good.
Hard to believe G’town is on one of the list. Maybe they mean the neighborhood and not the school.
Throw out any ranking including BU. Coincidentally both of those also don’t contain UMass. Goodbye Daily Mail and collegerank.
From there, averaging the ranks is probably the best way as they likely all use different subjective criteria.
Overall, I wouldn’t place too much value on food personally as long as it’s decent, not terrible.
@timetoshine I would suggest he check out Hampshire Dining Commons in particular.
http://umassdining.com/locations-menus/hampshire
The facility, itself, is very nice and the food is very good.
I have been there a couple of times, always very good.
Va Tech is on most of the lists and often quite high. We’ve seen it recently and concur.
I wish it had been that way when we were students… (sigh)
One problem with these sorts of lists is that one person’s “great” is another person’s “ugh!” When we eat at Eckerd we really love it (U Rochester too). Both places have multiple tasty, healthy options - things we are looking for. We’ve noted that we are rarely the only adult eating in these places when we go visit - and we visit on “regular” days, not special days. When we asked a student at Eckerd what they didn’t like about the food we were told “they don’t have basic white bread like Wonder bread!” She said this as she was making her sandwich on a tasty looking Ciabatta roll…
When we visited Smith and Mt Holyoke both tour guides mentioned taking a class at UMass just to eat at the dining hall.
@Time2Shine they have a few different dining commons. Hampshire is supposed to be the most organic and natural. You can’t get a soda there. You can always get a soft serve ice cream or frozen yogurt on the way out though. Some schools have great sports. UMASS has great food.
Skidmore doesn’t hit any of the lists but I can attest to the food there, my D has worked in several of the kitchens during her work study stints: https://www.saratoga.com/daily-planet-arthur/2018/01/on-dynasty-skidmore-college-to-host-seventh-annual-american-culinary-federation-competition/
Why wouldn’t the Culinary Institute of America be 1st?