<p>America's</a> Best Colleges - Forbes.com </p>
<p>check them out....some ivies are lower than you would expect</p>
<p>dumbest list i’ve ever laid eyes on…</p>
<p>lol ive never even heard of centre college. and boston college higher than half of the ivies? wow.</p>
<p>Before you say that you should probably read about how they ranked them. Forbes is a very reliable source and just because the first 7 slots are not ivies doesn’t mean you should automatically say it’s the “worst list you have ever laid eyes on.” The name isn’t everything, read about the criteria they used to rank and stop being closed minded. </p>
<p>edit: boston college is a very good school that meets the criteria they used to rank much better than the ivies it beat out.</p>
<p>Very interesting…thanks for posting this!</p>
<p>Ouch, Brown at #72? I’m not a big fan of Brown myself but they’re pretty grossly under-ranked.</p>
<p>EDIT: And Penn at 83. And Dartmouth at 98 (???). Seems ironic that for a list emphasizing LACs, Dartmouth gets knocked nearly out of the top 100.</p>
<p>So we have Georgetown three spots ahead of Oklahoma Baptist University, and Johns Hopkins and UT-Austin below North Greenvile University and Bethany College, somwhere in West Viginia. </p>
<p>soccersamdude, before I saw the rankings, I agreed with you… but this is without a doubt the absolute WORST ranking of any kind that I have ever seen. Michigan and Cornell University don’t even crack 200!!! Words seriously can not describe how horrible this ranking is. This list would be funny if I knew that people wouldn’t actually take them seriously.</p>
<p>What you must understand is that “best” is an extremely broad word. How can we define what colleges are better than others when the word “best” is so broad? Well, if you read this [Methodology</a> - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/02/best-colleges-methodology-opinions-ccap.html]Methodology”>Methodology) , you will see that Forbes has not ranked them the same way most lists do. Sure, we’ve all seen the harvard, yale, princeton lists. Everyone knows that getting into these colleges is the hardest and that these students have the highest gpas, SAT scores, achievements etc, etc. But this does not mean the college is the best. What is the person getting out of the college? Has it made them into a better PERSON (hence west point at #1)? Is their starting salary likely to be high? Have they gotten a good EXPERIENCE out of college or just been in the library the whole time? Are they well-rounded and balanced, and likely to have an impact in the workforce, or can they only do good on multiple choice tests? </p>
<p>Stop being close-minded people, “ivy” and “best” are not synonyms.</p>
<p>Soccersam, nobody is saying that the Ivies should be ranked 1-8 in the nation. But when you have an Ivy League ranked #207 in the nation, there is something seriously wrong with your ranking. </p>
<p>Forbes rankings are unreliable. Not just this one. I have seem many of their rankings, including MBA rankings, and they are all laughable. I would recommend against taking them seriously. </p>
<p>Here are just a couple of issues I saw just by skimming through the ranking:</p>
<p>1) There isn’t a single public university among the top 50 universities in the US. That’s highly improbable. </p>
<p>2) Duke, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Michigan not ranked in the top 100 </p>
<p>3) Cornell ranked out of the top 200 (#207)</p>
<p>4) Carnegie Mellon is ranked #267</p>
<p>I appreciate your philosophical approach to rankings. Yes, rankings can measure different things. Except when it comes to universities, I would hope that the ranking focuses on academics and not something else. Bob Jones ranked in the same league as Carnegie Mellon and Wisconsin-Madison! LOL!</p>
<p>
You can’t garner a reputation by blowing hot air. The Ivy Leagues are not exclusively the top universities in the US. But they are still amongst the top universities in the US and yes, any overall ranking that undermines this deserves little regard IMO. Especially with all of the aggrandizement of LACs in these rankings, you would think they would have the sense to at least have Dartmouth amongst the top. To me, it appears that these rankings are little more than Forbes’ own subjectivity.</p>
<p>Well, the list has UNC ranked higher than Duke, so it seems to be ok as far as I’m concerned. :)</p>
<p>I think Forbes overrated small liberal arts colleges. I’ve never even heard of a lot of these top 50 schools. And yes, some well renouned colleges are ranked way too low.</p>
<p>^Oh, come on, people. This is an utter b.s. ranking, and it should be an utter embarrassment to Forbes. One of the main factors is “student satisfaction” as measured by random comments on ratemyprofessor.com—a website in which perhaps 1% or 2% of the typical college’s students vent their frustrations with their least favorite professors. That in itself is enough to completely discredit the ranking because a tiny handful of loudmouthed, net-savvy malcontents can completely destroy a school’s ranking. Horse manure. Forbes should be ashamed of themselves for publishing such tripe.</p>
<p>I knew people would get mad when i posted this because it’s different than most lists that have the same colleges considered to be top-notch over and over…</p>
<p>This ranking simply shows a different perspective: It argues that a low-acceptance rate and handful of 1600 SAT-ers should not decide ranking, and i agree. What a person get’s out of college, how well it prepares them, and the impact it has on the person are much more important according to this study.</p>
<p>The “Best” universities and colleges should not be measured so heavily by debt by graduation, employment after graduation, etc. And RateMyProfessor.com gets 25% of the ranking? Are you kidding? Anyone can get on there and say whatever they want about a proff. I love using that site, but it’s hardly a reliable method when picking the best colleges, much less worth 25% of the criteria. The “Best” colleges should be rated on the quality and reputation of the faculty, the strength of the programs, the research, and the quality of the incoming class. Who cares if someone graduates from an Ivy like Cornell with a lot of debt? There’s a reason people pay a lot of money to go there. The word “best” is entirely subjective, and the best college for any given student may very well be a community college or something. I’m not trying to argue against that. But if this list is trying to list the best colleges in terms of the academics and quality of the institution, as it is implied, then this list is a complete joke… terrible, just terrible.</p>
<p>“This ranking simply shows a different perspective: It argues that a low-acceptance rate and handful of 1600 SAT-ers should not decide ranking, and i agree. What a person get’s out of college, how well it prepares them, and the impact it has on the person are much more important according to this study.”</p>
<p>I agree with that, but the best situation for a student will vary each time. Let’s say that some community college happens to be well rated by students, and the best option for thousands of people. Doest that mean it is a better academic institution than Dartmouth (which is rated ridiculously low in this list)? NO! That’s what I’m getting at. A prospective student should look at his or her best personal options, which should include a list of different factors, but it doesn’t change which universities and colleges are simply better schools. </p>
<p>There is a reason many schools are constantly ranked near the top, they have earned it.</p>
<p>Concur’d.</p>
<p>Any ranking where Amherst does not place first is absolute rubbish.</p>
<p>Obviously each person has a slightly different situation for what is best for them, but this is showing the universities that seem to have offered the most kids with those situations. Meaning that if you go to west point you are more likely to have a good college experience, and be changed into a better overall person with a good future ahead of you (which does not always mean making the most $$$) than if you go to cornell, which is ranked much lower.</p>
<p>what a joke, this list is so off-base it’s gross.</p>
<p>Forbes’ methodolgy - [Methodology</a> - Forbes.com](<a href=“http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/02/best-colleges-methodology-opinions-ccap.html]Methodology”>Methodology) - does nothing to support the case for this lists’ validity. 25% of the rankings are based on the statistically unreliable (IMO) Ratemyprofessors.com.</p>