how would you rank these colleges

College Search & Selection
1

<p>brandeis, occidental, new york university, macalester</p>

2

<p>NYU
Brandeis
Macalaster
Occidental</p>

3

<p>i dont know about occidental being last. remember im talking about undergraduate.</p>

4

<p>which of these colleges are worth applying to. which would you choose</p>

5

<p>Yeah I know. I stick with my choices 100%. They are all good colleges though.</p>

6

<p>The order is correct…NYU then Brandeis.</p>

7

<p>I visited Occidental and was NOT impressed. I agree with its ranking</p>

8

<p>I’ve heard that Occidental has an excellent program for figuring out one’s weight as a lion, Omeed; maybe this could be useful for you?</p>

9

<p>Depends on your criteria. The objective evidence seems to favor Macalester (but not by enough to overrule strong personal preferences for size, setting, etc.)</p>

<p>



By USNWR rankings (taking the LAC and University numbers as equivalents):
Macalester (#29 LAC)
Brandeis (#31 University)
NYU  (#32 University)
Occidental  (#33 LAC)</p>

<p>By median 75th percentile SAT M+CR:
Brandeis (1460)
Macalester (1440)
NYU (1430)
Occidental (1390)</p>

<p>By WSJ Feeder School Ranking (placements into top professional schools):
Macalester (#38)
Brandeis (#39)
(NYU and Occidental do not make top 50)</p>

<p>By Washington Monthly Bachelor-to-Ph.D.
Macalester (#13 LAC)
Brandeis (#15 University)
Occidental (#29 LAC)
NYU (#107 University)</p>

<p>By % of classes with <20 students / >50 students:
Macalester (68.9% / 1%)
Occidental (68.8% / .2%)
Brandeis (68.7% / 6.6%)
NYU (59.7% / 11.4%)</p>

<p>By per capita endowment:
Macalester ($373,303)
Occidental ($192,695)
Brandeis ($133,742)
NYU ($59,082)</p>

<p>(I consulted a couple of Hawkette's posts for the endowment and class size data; stateuniversity.com for the SAT medians)

</p>

10

<p>Remember that they are different kinds of schools. NYU is a massive university (20,000+ students), Brandeis is a small university, and Macalester and Occidental are small liberal arts colleges.</p>

11

<p>Brandeis, Occidental, NYU, Macalester</p>

12

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<p>Yes they are. You really need to clarify these differences and identify which features are important to you before you can meaningfully “rank” them.</p>

<p>One thing thay have in common is that they are all in or near major cities. For the ultimate urban experience, it’s hard to beat Greenwich Village and NYU. But then you give up any semblance of a traditional college campus. Macalester also is in a major city (granted, not Manhattan), but it comes with a traditional, attractive campus, as well is smaller classes and a much higher per capita endowment (meaning more money to spend per student on scholarships, facilities, etc.) Macalester’s advantages over NYU show up in certain graduate outcomes (apparently a better track record of top professional school placements, more students going on to complete doctorates). On the other hand, NYU spends about 100x more on research than a small school like Macalester. This could translate to more opportunities for jobs and internships in the natural and social sciences at NYU.</p>

<p>Personally, I like the concept of small universities like Rice and Brandeis. They strike a nice balance between LAC-like intimacy and the wider academic opportunities of a research university.</p>