<p>Intparent, when my S was looking at colleges, we sought the same type of info you’re asking for. I’ll try to help you through the benefit of hindsight as he graduated in a science major and is now a fourth-year grad student in a doctoral science/engineering program. These are some of the factors we considered important:</p>
<p>You can start with the USNWR rankings to get a list of schools to begin your search. That’s pretty much all we used it for. Then go to the individual colleges’ website. Look at the data set; that will give you admission stats. Look for 4-, 5-, and 6-year graduation rates, faculty:student ratios. Look at the dept.'s website. That should tell you what research the students are doing, where they’re doing it, and who’s funding it. There should be information about their graduates.</p>
<p>If helps enormously if you begin with some goals in mind. For example, my S knew his intended major and knew he wanted eventually to go to grad school. So we looked for a college that would help him achieve that goal, as exemplified by grad school stats for graduating seniors, competitive graduate fellowships awarded, quality of faculty research, and some other factors.</p>
<p>How can you determine any of these things objectively?</p>
<p>If grad school is the goal, these are the things I believe made a difference in helping him achieve that goal:</p>
<p>–Faculty funding. Endowment matters, but do the faculty receive outside funding in the form of grants for specific research?</p>
<p>–Opportunities for research. Does the college sponsor NSF or other summer research, ongoing scientific research during the school year, project- or course-based industry research? </p>
<p>–Publication in peer-reviewed journals. What is the faculty publishing? What are the students publishing?</p>
<p>–Formal peer support. Do strong students get a chance to teach or tutor their peers by subject area, under faculty supervision?</p>
<p>–UG awards. These include such things as Goldwater scholarships, foundation fellowships, conference awards like Sigma Xi, etc.</p>
<p>–Graduate student awards. How many NDSEG, NSF, Marshall, Gates, Rhodes, etc., are awarded to graduating seniors?</p>
<p>–Graduate school admissions. Which grad schools will the seniors attend? What percentage of the class and/or major will attend grad school?</p>
<p>–Industry recruiting. Which companies recruit on campus?</p>
<p>You mentioned the Olympiad specifically. I don’t know of a college that gives out that info on their students, but you might have some luck on the websites for the individual Olympiads. My S’s college didn’t. He had a medal winner in his major in his class but only found out incidentally after he matriculated. Very easy to find out the graduate awards, though. The college websites like to advertise that info as it reflects well on the school, and the award sites like NSF can be sorted by school for winners and honorable mentions.</p>
<p>Even after all that, visits are probably in order. What good is a college that looks great on paper if the prospective student would be miserable there for four years?</p>
<p>Good luck on the search.</p>
The data certainly won’t be the only deciding factor in the end, of course! But it would give a rational starting point to the search, and avoid wasting time at campuses that don’t advance her interests. </p>
The best you will find are some broad strokes and some indicators.</p>