<p>I saw this and was surprised and pleased! My S applied, in part because of the game design opportunities and a recently hired professor (Ira Fay). Just as we were starting to doubt that the program was serious enough compared to other schools, this came out. So it seems to have caught wider attention.</p>
<p>I was disappointed to see that Hampshire has dropped further to #66 in the rankings of Sierra Magazine’s “Cool Schools”, despite making Sustainability one of the main college initiatives:
<a href=“Cool Schools 2014 Full Ranking | Sierra Club”>http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2014-5-september-october/cool-schools-2014/full-ranking</a></p>
<p>This year, the Sierra Club used a different methodology (<a href=“Methodology | Sierra Club”>http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2014-5-september-october/cool-schools-2014/methodology</a>), which stressed energy conservation (25%), transit (12%), waste disposal (11%) and water use (10%). </p>
<p>It seems that either Hampshire is too modest when it fills out the survey responses, or there are a bunch of colleges that are doing a whole lot more. I’ll be interested to see if Hampshire improves in the next few years relative to other schools that responded to the Sierra Magazine survey.</p>
<p>Last week, the Washington Post reported that, </p>
<p>"Hampshire College, which had been ranked 110th in 2013-2014, was dropped from the liberal arts ranking after it decided it would not consider SAT or ACT scores in admissions. ‘We’re not going to get into a big fight with U.S. News,’ said Hampshire’s dean of admissions, Meredith Twombly. ‘Obviously I question their logic and their rationale.’ "</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-news-college-rankings-amid-predictability-some-major-shifts/2014/09/08/a2e17efc-3774-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/us-news-college-rankings-amid-predictability-some-major-shifts/2014/09/08/a2e17efc-3774-11e4-9c9f-ebb47272e40e_story.html</a></p>
<p>I imagine that few families are going to be deterred from applying to Hampshire because it used to be 110th, and now it isn’t ranked. I mean, its not like a 110th-place ranking is going to impress anyone interested in enrolling in an elite school. </p>
<p>It is also interesting that some schools clearly ‘game’ the system with the explicit purpose of rising higher in the USNWR rankings.</p>
<p>Fortunately, I found a new college ranking system with much more rigorous and selective ranking criteria than U.S. News and World Report:</p>
<p><a href=“The Onion’s 2014 University Rankings”>http://www.theonion.com/articles/the-onions-2014-university-rankings,36887/</a></p>
<p>Oh my gosh - the article from the Onion was hysterical. I think the whole USN&WR rankings are out of hand but then again, I’m a Hampshire mom so I would.</p>
<p>Last week, Hampshire President Jonathan Lash, wrote a nice blog article for Hufffington Post, “Mission is the Core Commitment” (<a href=“Mission Is the Core Commitment | HuffPost College”>Mission Is the Core Commitment | HuffPost College). He addressed the issue of college rankings"</p>
<p>“… we studied [our students], identifying traits shared by those students who thrive in our program. We learned many things, including that none – zero – of these academic “thrivers” had considered rankings when choosing a college. They chose Hampshire for its particular pedagogy, the ability to blend and pursue their academic passions, and commitment to values such as social justice, creativity, entrepreneurship, and sustainability.”</p>
Hampshire College was ranked #4 in ‘The 20 Best College Farms’ ( http://www.bestcollegereviews.org/best-university-farms/ ):
“Largely thanks to the campus farm, Hampshire College is well on their way to sourcing 100% of their food locally.”
Hampshire College was ranked #4 in College Magazine’s, ‘10 Most Transgender-Friendly Campuses’:
http://www.collegemagazine.com/cms-10-transgender-friendly-campuses/7/
“…Hampshire encourages creativity through awarding money to students who write and produce art following a LGBT theme with its KarMel Scholarship. Talk about setting a good example.”
College Magazine also ranked Hampshire at #8 among the ‘10 Best Schools for Gamers’:
http://www.collegemagazine.com/10-best-schools-gamers/3/
“For those more interested in research than recreation, the powerful Beowulf-style computer cluster on campus is always available for student use—whether you want to learn how to create physical simulations or practice 3D rendering.”
Hampshire College is ranked #116th in Forbes’ 2015 ranking of colleges.
http://www.forbes.com/colleges/hampshire-college/
Forbes also ranked Hampshire #6 on their list of, “The Most Entrepreneurial Colleges” - http://www.forbes.com/sites/liyanchen/2015/07/29/americas-most-entrepreneurial-colleges-2015/
Hampshire crept up the Sierra Club’s list of ‘Cool Schools’ (http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2015-5-september-october/cool-schools-2015/full-ranking) from #66 last year to #60 this year. Still, not such a great ranking for a college that espouses sustainability as one its core values. I’ll be interested to see what happens in the future as the local food initiative, solar panel plan and new building all come online.
Hampshire comes in #3 on this unfortunate list, The 10 Ugliest College Campuses: http://dailycaller.com/2015/09/02/19-ugliest-college-campuses-in-america/2/
I’ll admit that some of Hampshire’s buildings are not architectural masterpieces, but the overall setting should balance the structures somewhat. I’ve been to some of the other campuses on this list, as well as others that are not, and I can think of at least 10 campuses that are much less attractive than Hampshire’s. Oh well.
That surprises me too. The setting is just beautiful which to me more than makes up for some of the ugly buildings. Humphf!