Forbes College Rankings 2010 are OUT! Williams is #1

College Search & Selection
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<p>ratemyprofessors.com is 17.5% of this ranking. And ratemyprofessors is a free website open to all. Someone not even in college could rate college professors here. And the previous reports about how inactive the website is add to this. Forbes will have to drop the ratemyprofessors.com thing completely for me to reconsider the list. </p>

<p>Also, note that student retention rate (IMO a much better indicator of student satisfaction than ratemyprofessors.com) is only worth 5% of the ranking. What is this?</p>

<p>And, because I learned AP Stats this year, I have to note that the whole ratemyprofessors.com thing is open to voluntary sample bias. Because the people going on that website self-select to go there, it doesn’t capture the view of the whole class. On the other hand, the student retention rate does capture the whole class. </p>

<p>And there has to be an incoming student caliber. I, as do many other people, want to go to colleges with competitive atmospheres. Where does forbes account for this?</p>

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<p>"Rate my professors?</p>

<p>Seriously?"</p>

<p>Peer Assessment (filled out and submitted by whoever, with no quality check…see Clemson scandal)?</p>

<p>Seriously?</p>

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<p>

Oh please. No one is defending the USNews methodology, just impugning Forbes’s.</p>

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<p>Chill out, Caillebotte, if you play your cards right, maybe your kids can go to colleges rated higher than Cornell, like Wofford and Principia.</p>

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<p>I enjoy Forbes attempt at output rather than input based methodology, but like another poster said, many universities dont even use ratemyprofessor.com (Mine included).</p>

<p>That being said, I’m quite content with Northwestern ahead of U Chicago, Duke, and Cal Tech :).</p>

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<p>And Northwestern even beat Principia!!!</p>

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<p>lolwut? Practice what you preach, bro. I’m sensing a little bitterness and a lot stupidity.</p>

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<p>and to use the argument of a previous poster, what evidence do you have that student satisfaction and success at Principia doesn’t merit their rather high ranking?</p>

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<p>What a joke… Reminded me of why I’ve never found this publication very useful for any type of business or economic information. They obviously have an aversion to public schools but that’s understandable since most of their readers’ spoiled children probably wouldn’t be caught dead at a place like University of Texas or Michigan. I’m actually hoping that a healthy portion of fools take stock in these rankings and lessen the application load at the real top 50 universities/colleges.</p>

<p>Forbes… LOL</p>

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Lol good one. But your ceaseless sarcasm belies a contempt for Cornell that is evident in many of your posts. Do you have a personal axe to grind? Did Cornell reject you way back in the days before moving pictures, you know, when you were applying to colleges?</p>

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<p>I just wanted to (belatedly) correct this. This is often true with PhD programs - but the plurality of students at Harvard Law come from Harvard.</p>

<p>I don’t think going to Harvard College gives someone a huge advantage for HLS, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. And when you add in the access undergrads have to HLS resources (libraries, talks, cross-registration, working for professors) - there are quite a few benefits from going to undergrad next to one of the top 2 or 3 law schools.</p>

<p>(This is not to say all HLS aspirants need to go to Harvard - I think LACs are fantastic + my brother made a great decision to turn down Harvard to attend Williams. I’m just arguing that Harvard is also a great place to go before law school.)</p>

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<p>“Did Cornell reject you way back in the days before moving pictures, you know, when you were applying to colleges?”</p>

<p>Resorting to the ad hominems already?</p>

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<p>^It’s not an ad hominem bud. For it to be an ad hominem, I would have had to attack you instead of the structure of your logic. You offered no logic to speak of, so it couldn’t have been an ad hominem. I merely asked you a question.</p>

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<p>Ah, it’s an ad hominem, bud. Maybe you should graduate from college before you think you know everything.</p>

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<p>I am proud to say that I attend the 338th best college in America!</p>

<p>Go Tigers!</p>

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<p>@sara12, @Tzar09,</p>

<p>Regarding Colby/Bowdoin ranking … </p>

<p>I went to Colby and grew up in Maine. I live in NYC now. My understanding is that a “forced rank” of the CBB schools 40-50 years ago would have been Bowdoin 1, Bates 2, Colby 3. 20 years ago or so that had become Bowdoin, Colby, Bates.</p>

<p>From my experience (dealing with folks in New York, Boston, and Portland, ME; not scientific obviously, but probably the right 3 cities to gauge) I think Bowdoin is still widely considered “better” and more prestigious than Colby and Bates. </p>

<p>But I also think Colby has come on strong in the last 10-15 years in a few ways. First, it’s admission rate has become more selective (“most selective” category) - a full 10 points more selective than it used to be. Second, the “echo” of the '84 frat ban - which resulted in a down-tick in alumni giving AND alumni network activity (e.g., intros to jobs, connections to graduate schools) has become old news and is no longer having the impact it once did. Finally, the Colby departments that help students get placed at top-tier firms and graduate schools are doing a much better job (Bowdoin used to kill Colby in this area) which in turn is helping several of the rating areas that Forbes uses and “prestige” overall. </p>

<p>More generally I understand the academics at Colby have really gone up a notch and that the student body - while still party oriented - is much more nose to grindstone than earlier Colby classes were. So I’m not surprised to see Colby ahead of Bowdoin. Bowdoin wins on prestige, but academically I think it’s now a toss-up. Ultimately I think the choice should be based on majors. If you want to do Economics or Political Science, go to Colby. Pure sciences, probably Bowdoin (though Colby has really improved in this area). English is likely a pick 'em… Colby has benefited from a couple of it professors becoming well known novelists. Arts probably would be best at Bates, though the art museum at Colby is tremendous.</p>

<p>Also of note… the sensitivity to the difference amongst the 3 schools is inversely proportional to distance from the school. Portland, ME is a Bowdoin town. In Boston, it’s Bowdoin first, but Colby is a strong #2. Once you get to New York City, folks don’t really know the difference amongst the 3 and tend to get them confused. Get to California and hardly anyone has heard of any of the schools. </p>

<p>My experience working with many recent Colby and Bowdoin grads at a professional services company in NYC is that they are equally sharp and prepared.</p>

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<p>Caltech at 19? 0_0 Let’s just take this list with a pinch of salt.</p>

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<p>“Did Cornell reject you way back in the days before moving pictures, you know, when you were applying to colleges?”</p>

<p>Obvious ad hominem.</p>

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Perhaps you should not presume to know everything even if you are a college graduate. Particularly if you are one who doesn’t understand the workings of an ad hominem logical fallacy.</p>

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<p>I still want to know if Schmaltz got rejected by Cornell.</p>