Don't Blame U.S. News!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I was thinking the other day about college research I did back in the early 1990s, and I realized that today's callow youth, who were hardly born when I first began looking at college ratings, may not even know that the U.S. News magazine did NOT start the ball rolling on rating colleges. How many of you have ever seen the Cass and Birnbaum college guide? </p>

<p>Amazon.com:</a> Cass & Birnbaum's Guide to American Colleges: Books: Melissa Cass,Julia Cass-Liepmann </p>

<p>It went through quite a few editions before going out of print. In its preface, it used to claim to be the very first college guide that rated colleges by admission selectivity, which is a practical thing to know about a college. An even older college guide than that, one that goes back to when I was in high school, was Lovejoy's College Guide. </p>

<p>Amazon.com:</a> Lovejoy's College Guide (Field Guide to Colleges): Books: Charles T. Straughn,Barbarasue Lovejoy Straughn </p>

<p>These guidebooks are now out of print. The organizations that still produce college guidebooks, and yes that includes U.S. News, now cooperate in the Common Data Set Initiative </p>

<p>Common</a> Data Set Initiative </p>

<p>so that colleges can report data they gather for federally mandated reports and surveys and other data they gather for internal purposes in a common format that many guidebook publishers can use. Today, it's much easier than it was when I was in high school to get good, COMPARABLE information about a lot of colleges when choosing which colleges to apply to. </p>

<p>P.S. If you'd like to see a different magazine rating of colleges from that of U.S. News, take a look at the Washington Monthly ratings, </p>

<p>"The</a> Washington Monthly College Rankings" by The Editors </p>

<p>which I think consider some interesting rating criteria.</p>

2

<p>I liked the C&B guide better than the rest because it was not just numbers. I wish I had kept my old ones from the 70's. It's one thing you can't find in most used bookstores either.</p>

3

<p>My father, a college administrator, has a book from the 1940s that rates colleges. He says Lovejoy's College Guide pre-dates Cass and Birnbaum, going back to the mid-1950s.</p>

<p>The American Council on Education had a series that goes back to the 1930s "American Universities and Colleges".</p>

<p>After that: "A Guide to Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools in the United States" by Carter V Good, 1945</p>

<p>"Fine's American College Counselor and Guide" by Benjamin Fine 1955</p>

<p>"So You Are Going to College" Clarence Lovejoy 1941</p>

4

<p>This is the earliest college ranking I have found. From "So you're going to college" by Clarence Lovejoy, 1940. Based on the 1938-39 Who's Who.</p>

<p>Institution Name, number of alumni in Who's Who 1940, rank Who's Who 1940
HARVARD UNIVERSITY 1433 1
YALE UNIVERSITY 1006 2
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY 515 3
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEW YORK 461 4
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN-ANN ARBOR 454 5
CORNELL UNIVERSITY-ENDOWED COLLEGES 413 6
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON 342 7
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-BERKELEY 290 8
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 288 9
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 279 10
AMHERST COLLEGE 267 11
BROWN UNIVERSITY 246 12
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE 231 13
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 229 14
US MILITARY ACADEMY 221 15
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 201 16
STANFORD UNIVERSITY 201 17
WILLIAMS COLLEGE 190 18
US NAVAL ACADEMY 189 19
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 186 20
INDIANA UNIVERSITY 181 21
JOHNS HOPKINS 172 22
OHIO STATE 169 23
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 162 24
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 161 25
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI 155 26
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS 146 27
STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA 139 28
OBERLIN COLLEGE 137 29
CUNY COLLEGE OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 129 30
OHIO WESLEYAN 120 31
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA-MAIN CAMPUS 120 32
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL 116 33
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY 116 34
DE PAUW UNIVERSITY 115 35
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 113 36
BOWDOIN COLLEGE 110 37
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY 101 38
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 92 39
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 95 40</p>

5

<p>Honestly, everyone insults U.S. News for not being accurate or being superficial, but if it wasn't there, people would want something like it.</p>

<p>Everyone always asks for rankings, then complains when they realize the shortcomings.</p>

6

<p>
[quote]
Honestly, everyone insults U.S. News for not being accurate or being superficial, but if it wasn't there, people would want something like it.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Not to mention US News does put a disclaimer on its rankings.</p>

7

<p>I have 1970-1971 Edition Cass and Birnbaum. Love reading it which I do often.</p>

<p>It doesn't rate numerically in any kind of order; admissions is rated not selective, selective, more selective, most selective. It's very detailed...average SATs are given, very interesting to compare to today (if anyone's interested in specific school I can look it up).</p>

<p>Also describes academic environment. In pretty good detail. Campus life, student body etc. Some quite amusing given the time. I find it elitist, kind of snobby. It virtually dismisses many schools as not even worthy of an introduction; then it gushes over ivies and older New England LACs for instance. Tells it like it is without today's PC fears and concerns. </p>

<p>Some tidbits- Williams College- "Admission is among the most selective in the country. About 10% of entering freshmen admitted on basis of recommendations rather than usual entrance requirements, test scores and class rank." </p>

<p>Lafayette- "Students are very capable, however student body is not notably scholarly or intellectual, and entrance to first-rate professional schools appears easier for graduates than admission to top graduate institutions."</p>

<p>Wellesley- "Dormitory curfew hours liberal. Skirts required for dinner. Men guests allowed in student rooms Sunday afternoons."</p>

<p>Amherst- "Some recent indications, however that strong faculty interest for scholarly careers is not generally shared by students themselves."</p>

<p>Tufts- "Recent 'publish or perish' incident that made nationwide headlines one indication that Tufts is attempting to compete with Harvard, MIT and Brandeis as a scholar's institution."</p>

<p>Bryn Mawr- "Academic standards also so high students desiring to enter graduate school are inhibited from experimenting with interesting electives for fear their grade point average will suffer."</p>

<p>Princeton- "The university has, nevertheless, begun to experiment with the admission of students who are extremely capable in one area and not so well-rounded as the traditional "Princeton man". But there is a lurking fear in some quarters that Princeton may try to imitate Harvard with its quota of "eccentric geniuses", and this fear has kept the admissions office from venturing very far from traditional types--preferably sons of alumni."</p>

8

<p>A favorite of mine from ten or more years ago was called (I think) "Lisa Birnbaum's College Book".
This was filled with the kind of juicy stuff that you would never be privy to studying data points. More of a gossip rag about the elites and who goes there. Invaluable, and witty too!</p>

9

<p>Thanks for the quotations from the old guidebook.</p>

10

<p>Looking at Lovejoy's 1940 Who is Who guide...it is interesting that there are quite a few small liberal arts colleges among big schools: Amherst, Williams, Ohio Wesleyan, Wesleyan and Bowdoin.</p>

11

<p>Cool! What do these dusty old books have to say about Penn?</p>

12

<p>Penn - Lovejoy 1940</p>

<p>University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia</p>

<p>with state aid
11,479, at minimum, 4658 women
of whom 6800 are regular students and of these 4400 are undergrads
tuition 400 dollars typical expenses 1200
an endowment per student $2702
Library 901,164 volumes.
1297 scholarships some for students paid by city of Philadelphia.
Also state senatorial scholarships for free tuition
loan funds, $29,723
one in five works
Phi Beta Kappa Chapter 1892
Chapter 4 College of Liberal arts for women 1935
offers CAA Pilot training
ranks ninth Who's Who 288 names
Navy ROTC, Army ROTC (infantry, medical)
accredited middle states Association</p>

13

<p>collegehelp,</p>

<p>would it be possible to paste the information for ohio wesleyan from Lovejoy 1940? i am curious what it looked like then...</p>

14

<p>Ohio Wesleyan - Lovejoy 1940</p>

<p>Ohio Wesleyan University, in Delaware, Methodist
679 men, 783 women.
Tuition $250, typical expense is $775
faculty ratio 1:10
endowment per student $3981.
Educational expenditure per student $283
Library 150,847 volumes
428 scholarships and grants in aid, $50-$600
lowered for children of ministers
loan capital $560,527
loan income $17, 082
one in three works.
Three co-op dorms for men and $120 per year for board and Room.
Two for women at $180 a year.
Phi Beta Kappa Chapter 1907.
Largest coed denominational college in the United States
ranks 31st in Who's Who, 120 names
accredited North Central Association</p>

15

<p>I was doing research recently for a course on post-World War II America at Harvard where I was looking at the changing role of elite universities immediately after the war and into the 1950s. I had access to hard copies of all of the top colleges' course catalogs from 1935-1960. I was amazed to see the reported College Board scores cited in these catalogs from the mid-to-late 1950s, when I think widespread use of them began. It was not usual to see average scores for math and verbal in the 550-590 range at top schools. </p>

<p>Has anyone picked this up in Lovejoy?</p>

16

<p>BalletGirl-550-590 used to be a decent score! The scores were recentered/rescaled maybe 25 years ago; I was accepted into an Ivy League college in the eighties with mid 600s. If people got 800s they were written up in the newspaper.</p>

17

<p>Muffy333,</p>

<p>I am aware that the SATs were recentered, I believe in the early 1990s. This recentering accounts for about a 50 point difference.</p>

<p>I am describing a different phenomenon -- scores in the mid-500s at top schools in the 1950s -- not mid-600s in the 1980s.</p>

18

<p>When I was applying to Ivy League colleges with mid-600s, people a generation older than me didn't understand why I would have a problem since THEY got into Ivy League colleges with high 500s. In the fifties being from the right kind of people was still important admissions criteria...they didn't have to worry about all the smart minorities and smart women nonsense :-)</p>

19

<p>The SATS were recentered beginning with the freshman class of 1996. An SAT score of 1100 today is equivalent to an SAT score of 1000 in 1994. I think the SATs beacame easier over the years but that is based on hearsay. I also think the competition to get into top schools increased greatly beginning in 1965 when the baby boomers reached college age.</p>

20

<p>I was under the impression the boom began with the GI Bill and post-WWII return of soldiers to the academy.</p>