<p>gnatcire,
I’m actually sympathetic with your project of doing a combined research university/LAC ranking based on US News methodology. Informative is absolutely correct that the PA scores aren’t comparable or interchangeable, because they’re based on separate peer group surveys. There’s really no way around that problem, except to do your own combined PA survey which would be prohibitively time-consuming and expensive. </p>
<p>Apart from that complication, most of the data are comparable across the two data sets. What you’d need to do is rank order all the schools (LACs plus research universities) on each element in the US News rating, then assign raw scores to each of those elements based on the weights US News assigns to each category.</p>
<p>Here are the elements that make up the US News ranking, and a comparison of Williams with Princeton and Yale for each category for which data are readily accessible. You’ll quickly see why your initial placement of Williams as tied with Princeton and just ahead of Yale is way off, once you get into the data.</p>
<p><a href=“weight”>B</a> Element / Williams / Princeton / Yale**</p>
<p>(15%) PA score 4.6 / 4.8 / 4.8
(7.5%) HS counselor score 4.6 / 4.9 / 4.9
(1.5%) Admit rate 17.3% / 8.5% / 7.7%
(6%) % in top 10% of HS class 91% / 93% / 97%
(7.5%) SAT CR+M 1310-1530 / 1410-1590 / 1400-1590
(7%) Faculty compensation n/a
(3%) Faculty w/ top terminal degree 96% / 93% / 93%
(1%) % faculty full-time 93.1% / 92.0% / 99.8%
(1%) S/F ratio 7:1 / 6:1 / 5:1
(6%) Class size <20 70.8% / 70.6% / 77.2%
(2%) Class size 50+ 4% / 11% / 6%
(16%) Ave grad rate 95% / 96% / 97%
(4%) Ave freshman retention rate 97% / 98% / 99%
(10%) Financial resources per student n/a
(5%) Ave alumni giving rate 58% / 63% / 37%
(7.5%) Grad rate performance +1 / +1 / +1</p>
<p>As you can see, Williams trails Princeton and Yale in most categories, including most of those that carry the most weight in the US News ranking. More importantly, many other research universities also lead Williams in most of these categories:</p>
<p>Fourteen research universities have a lower admit rate than Williams (1.5%).</p>
<p>About a dozen or so research universities have higher median SAT scores than Williams (7.5%).</p>
<p>Seven research universities have a higher graduation rate than Williams; another two are tied with Williams (16%).</p>
<p>Twelve research universities have a higher freshman retention rate than Williams; another 13 are tied. with Williams (4%)</p>
<p>Seven research universities have a higher percentage of classes with <20 students than Williams (6%).</p>
<p>PA scores aren’t commensurate, but assuming that problem away, six research universities have higher PA scores than Williams, and another 6 are tied with it.</p>
<p>Sixteen research universities have higher HS Counselor ratings than Williams, and another 5 are tied with it.</p>
<p>We have no transparency on the financial resources per student category.</p>
<p>We also don’t have transparency in the US News data on faculty compensation, but generally faculty salaries at LACs are substantially lower lower than at research universities. According to the AAUP, at Princeton the average assistant professor makes $94.200, the average associate professor makes $123,700, and the average full professor makes $193,800. At Yale, the average assistant professor makes $89,700, the average associate professor makes $108,600, and the average full professor makes $180,400. At Williams, the average assistant professor makes $76,500, the average associate professor makes $87,000, and the average full professor makes $135,100. So average faculty salaries at Williams are $13,000 to $35,000 lower than at Yale, depending on the level, and $18,000 to $58,000 lower than at Princeton. Even at the #29-ranked research university, the University of Michigan, average faculty salaries are well above the Williams mark, at $85,800 for assistant professors, $98,200 for associate professors, and $148,800 for full professors, or $9,000 to $13,000 higher, on average, depending on faculty rank. Based on that limited data, we can expect Williams to rank perhaps somewhere around #50, possibly lower, in faculty compensation—a factor that counts for 7% in the overall US News ranking. </p>
<p>Given all that, it’s hard to see how Williams could come in higher than about #12 or so in a combined LAC-research university ranking, and even that might be generous.</p>