Forbes list

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Southern California
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<p>Are they kidding #95? Ranked below obscure colleges like "kalamazoo college" and "Macalester college"? I searched but couldn't find their ranking from last year.</p>

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<p>LOL…kalamazoo. I just laugh every time I hear that name. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/[/url]”>http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/list/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Anyways, the Forbes ranking is a complete joke. </p>

<p>They take a large national university’s usual ranking, multiply that number by 2 to 5, stuff a bunch of small liberal arts colleges between that, and they have their ranking. </p>

<p>I mean, Willams, Swarthmore, US Military Academy, and Pomona in the top 10? LOL.</p>

3

<p>Forbes rated Palo Alto as one of the top ten college sports towns, and they listed Tokyo, New York and London as among the top ten most beautiful cities in the world.</p>

<p>Sheesh.</p>

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<p>Take those rankings with a grain of salt.</p>

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<p>I’m not following if this is sarcasm or not. Never been to London but NYC and Tokyo are the 2 best and most exciting places I’ve ever traveled. I’ve also been to Germany, Austria, Czech, Canada, and Taiwan. Cities in these places can’t match the energy those 2 cities have, except maybe Taipei.</p>

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<p>grabbit, it’s not about energy, it’s about beauty… NY’s nice and all, but not very pretty. I’d know, I’ve lived here for twenty years.</p>

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<p>If Kalamazoo and Macalester are obscure you probably don’t know anything about them, so you are in no way able to determine they don’t deserve rankings higher than USC. One of the points of the Forbes ranking is to remove the shimmery effect that prestige has on boosting a college or universities rank and so focus on academic quality, post-graduation success etc.</p>

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<p>@grabbit Williams, Swarthmore, USMA and Pomona are amazing and highly selective colleges that have incredible endowments, great teaching, low student-to-faculty ratios and excel at many other metrics. They are well deserving of their top 10 rankings.</p>

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<p>Uhhh… are you kidding me Collegemom. I am not surprised that you have never heard of Kalamazoo College because this college actually stays true as an academic institution. Although they are the one of the oldest colleges in America, they serve their duty in providing academic learning and producing successful graduates. Last time I checked their graduate success, they were cranking an incredibly high rate of future PhD students and graduate salary than schools like UC Berkeley and USC, and we all know how great UC Berkeley is at those things.</p>

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<p>If you’re looking for USC in particular, i believe it was 165. It’s not that surprising for USC to have that much of an increase. Michigan went from the 200s in 2009, to 95 in 2010 i believe.</p>

<p>this list (from 2010) will give you some highlights from that ranking (although USC isn’t listed.)</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2011/08/03/americas-top-colleges/[/url]”>http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2011/08/03/americas-top-colleges/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Lol indeed. Since you obviously have no idea that Swartmore, Williams, Amherst, Middleburry, and Pomona form the LAC equivalent of HYPSM. With the exception of USMA (which is an amazing institution) S,W, and P are all listed in the top 4 for LACs on US NEWS. So it isn’t at all surprising that they’re listed in the top 10 in a list that combines LACs with universities.</p>

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<p>Steve Forbes went to Princeton which has claimed the top spot since the list’s inception. That sort of tendentious methodology makes the list specious…</p>

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<p>^ Princeton’s also tied with Harvard as being the #1 university in US NEWS. Is it really all that surprising that it wouldn’t claim the #1 spot on another ranking?</p>

<p>Granted, Harvard is #6 on Forbes (despite being #1 on US NEWS) But i believe that Princeton and Dartmouth are the Ivies most lauded for undergraduate teaching. Princeton’s also one of only two universities which have outranked Harvard in more than one ranking (the other being Caltech.)</p>

<p>So, given its resources and emphasis on teaching, it isn’t that surprising that Princeton’s listed as the #1 university in the Forbes.</p>

<p>EDIT: Princeton only had the top spot in 2008. Williams had the top spot in 2009-11, and Princeton just got it back again in '12.</p>

<p>c.f. <a href=“http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/08/01/americas-top-colleges-2/[/url]”>http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelnoer/2012/08/01/americas-top-colleges-2/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Steve Forbes built the ranking around metrics that would tend to place Princeton at the top. In other words, he and his subordinates said, what metrics place Princeton at number one? Once identified, he applied those criteria to populate the list. That’s why it’s fundamentally flawed.</p>

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<p>If you want to improve USC’s standing, post a lot of positive reviews on rate my professor dot com since this is one of the largest components of the Forbes’ rating. Just be sure to say that all the classes were very difficult, but that the professors were off the charts. (Review Forbes’ methodology description for more information.)</p>

<p>The Forbes’ methodology is very flawed.</p>

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<p>And that explains in part why tiny LACs populate the top. BTW, two of my USC classmates transferred from Pomona to USC because (they said of Pomona): “nobody’s ever heard of it.”</p>

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<p>Hahaha. I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not. You honestly think a billion are has nothing better to do than conjure up a rating system that favors his already highly touted school? You’re just bitter. I love how people automatically dismiss rankings that rank their school low, or go against the traditional rankings of prestige.</p>

17

<p>Interesting rant. Nope, Steve Forbes was ****ed that Princeton wasn’t garnishing the respect he covets so he simply made his own list. In short, money can buy prestige…</p>

<p>And I forgot about another USC friend who transferred to USC from Occidental for the same reason I stated above re Pomona: if you are going to spend a lot of money for college, you better attend one that has national recognition!</p>

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<p>“money can buy prestige” </p>

<p>Says a USC student…</p>

19

<p>If a university is #165 one year, there is no way it could change so much as to be ranked #95 the following year. </p>

<p>The list was categorically wrong at least once, and thus, I do not care about what it has to say.</p>

20

<p>Yes, I suppose those at the illustrious University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign would have an issue with USC…</p>