Do You Agree with this list?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>source: <a href="http://www.******.com/college_rankings.asp%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.******.com/college_rankings.asp&lt;/a>
Our Approach to College Rankings
Although many college rankings exist, we have developed our own rankings. Our college rankings are independent and based on one criterion: the academic quality of the freshman class. We feel that the best colleges in America are those with the most talented freshman class, not the colleges with the most volumes in their libraries. The colleges on our top 100 list fit this criterion.</p>

<p>Below are four tiers of the nation's top colleges based on the quality of the freshman class. The colleges are listed in tiers rather than ranked individually. We believe that there is an incremental difference between a college that is, for example, ranked 7th versus one that is ranked 10th, and that it is more meaningful to consider colleges in tiers.</p>

<p>Tier I
Amherst College
Brown University
Cal Tech
Columbia University
Cornell University
Dartmouth College
Duke University
Emory University
Harvard College
Harvey Mudd
Johns Hopkins University
Middlebury College
MIT
Northwestern University
Pomona College
Princeton University
Rice University
Stanford University
Swarthmore College
University of Chicago
University of Pennsylvania
Washington University: STL
Wesleyan University
Williams College
Yale University</p>

<p>Tier II
Bard College
Bates College
Bowdoin College
Brandeis University
Carleton College
Carnegie Mellon
Claremont McKenna
Colby College
College of William & Mary
Cooper Union
Davidson College
Georgetown University
Georgia Tech
Grinnell College
Haverford College
Macalester College
New York University
Oberlin College
Reed College
Tufts College
University of Notre Dame
Vanderbilt University
Vassar College
Washington and Lee
Wellesley College</p>

<p>Tier III
Barnard College
California: Berkeley
Boston College
Boston University
Bucknell University
Case Western Reserve
Colgate University
Connecticut College
Hamilton College
Kenyon College
Lehigh University
Rhodes College
Rose-Hulman Institute of Tech
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
Scripps College
Trinity College
Tulane University
University of Michigan
University of Richmond
University of Rochester
University of Virginia
US Air Force
USC
Wake Forest University
Whitman College</p>

<p>Tier IV
Colorado College
Colorado School of Mines
Franklin & Marshall College
Furman University
George Washington University
Grove City College
Illinois Wesleyan University
Kalamazoo College
Lafayette College
Lewis & Clark College
Mt. Holyoke College
North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Puget Sound
Sarah Lawrence
Smith College
St. Olaf College
Stevens Institute of Technology
Trinity University
UCLA
University of Maryland
University of Wisconsin
US Coast Guard
US Military Academy - West Point
Villanova University
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) </p>

<hr>

<p>note: they are not ranked persay, but grouped into tiers.</p>

2

<p>No, because I dont think my school is a 'Tier Five' (or greater) school. Franklin and Marshall ahead of us? That's a laugh...</p>

3

<p>Rhodes is not as high as Tier three, and Beloit, Knox and Lawrence, all excellent midwest LACs seem to be missing.</p>

4

<p>No.................................</p>

5

<p>
[quote]
Our college rankings are independent and based on one criterion: the academic quality of the freshman class. We feel that the best colleges in America are those with the most talented freshman class

[/quote]

I've never fully understood this mode of thinking. Would one rank hospitals based on the patients they admit?</p>

6

<p>This is so dumb.

[quote]
We feel that the best colleges in America are those with the most talented freshman class, not the colleges with the most volumes in their libraries.

[/quote]

Sounds really arrogant seeing as anyone can make the same list by looking at US News and World Report lol</p>

7

<p>"I've never fully understood this mode of thinking. Would one rank hospitals based on the patients they admit?"</p>

<p>I see you've read Loren Pope's books as well :)</p>

8

<p>that is wrong in so many ways</p>

9

<p>SmallColleges- Of course. He puts it ever so nicely (and correctly, imo). :cool:</p>

10

<p>His books are some of my favorite to read. I have read both multiple times (im such a freakin nerd)</p>

11

<p>USNA USAFA and USMA are all in the same tiers</p>

12

<p>um...cooper union in tier two?!?! lol nonono this is all wrong...</p>

13

<p>
[quote]
I've never fully understood this mode of thinking. Would one rank hospitals based on the patients they admit?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>If hospitals were based on as much of a geographically independent mode of choice by individual preference as freshman classes were, then yes. Yes I would.</p>

14

<p>Why bother making any one-size-fits-none ranking? Just collect all the stats and publish them, and let readers apply their own criteria.</p>

15

<p>it seems arbitrary to have bowdoin (among other equivalent LACs) in T2, when schools that are similar on almost every single criterion (including the quality of the first year class) are in T1 (midd, wes). since you're methodology isn't explained, the list would seem to any reasonable reader deeply flawed.</p>

16

<p>Would you please post the specific methodology that was used to come up with these tiers?</p>