Niche 2021 Rankings Liberal Arts Colleges

College Search & Selection
1

Niche 2021 Liberal Arts Colleges Rankings recently released:

  1. Pomona
  2. Bowdoin
  3. Harvey Mudd
  4. Carleton
  5. West Point
  6. Williams
  7. Haverford
  8. Colby
  9. Washington and Lee
  10. Amherst
2

IMO, Rankings are much, much more useful in finding new schools that you might not have heard of before, but are UTTERLY useless (at the undergraduate level,) when it comes to determining if the school you’re interested in is good or not.

Your “fit” with the school is much more important than what rank the school is, no matter what some on CC might say.

For example, I applied to college last-year for Public Health, which is not a typical major (like Bio or CS) that most colleges offer. In that sense, using ranking systems was beneficial because it allowed me to find colleges that offer the major, but it didn’t substitute for my own research on each college on my list.

Just my 2 cents. :smile:

1 Like
3

Agree this is only useful in the sense of saying “hey, worth a look.” Harvey Mudd, Washington & Lee, West Point and Haverford - for example - are each going to appeal to ENTIRELY different kinds of students.

4

Agree - I was just posting to see what comments people had as it appears the list has changed a bit from last year.

5

West Point just always seems out of place to me…

6

Though Niche’s numerical rankings appear to differentiate schools, note that the first 31 liberal arts colleges listed receive the same “Overall Niche Grade” of A+.

7

As far as how rankings go, I think US News and Forbes have a better track record at obtaining real data and metrics from the common data sets.

8

@TennisParent That’s might be true, but the fact is that rankings are EXTREMELY suspect to college manipulation, and the higher-up you go, the more the rankings are kind of random (is there truly a major difference between UChicago vs. Penn in the ranks etc.)

9

The Washington Monthly poll is also out. Pound for pound way more useful than the Niche survey and does a better job than the USNews in terms of real data and metrics regarding ROI:

  1. Amherst
  2. Wesleyan
  3. Berea
  4. Washington and Lee
  5. Harvey Mudd
  6. Pomona
  7. Vassar
  8. Middlebury
  9. Claremont McKenna
  10. Williams

https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020college-guide/liberalarts

10

How is West Point a Liberal Arts College? It’s top 10 majors in order are:

Business
Mechanical Engineering
Engineering
History
Economics
Civil Engineering
Legal Studies
Military Science
Geography
Systems Engineering

I expect even Caltech has a higher percentage of Liberal Arts majors than West Point.

11

Thanks @circuitrider ! That list utilizes a refreshing significant change in methodology and results, compared to the tired minimal shuffling of the usual suspects of other lists.

1 Like
12

The definition of an LAC isn’t that it offers only, or primarily, liberal arts majors. If it were, Harvey Mudd wouldn’t fit that definition. An LAC, broadly speaking, is one that offers only, or primarily, undergraduate education.

13

Niche rankings are largely influenced by student generated reviews. That’s great because it means the students are happy.

1 Like
14

But, Harvey Mudd does offer primarily liberal arts majors:
https://www.hmc.edu/academics/majors-at-harvey-mudd/

15

One has to look at the number of students who are in liberal arts majors. The majority of Harvey Mudd students major in either CS or engineering (not considered as liberal arts majors), even though there’re more majors that are offered belong to liberal arts. BTW, the number of liberal arts majors offered almost always exceeds the number of non-liberal arts majors offered at nearly all colleges with only a few exceptions, because there’re simply many more majors in liberal arts.

16

Is Niche really used for ranking or advertising? We used it as an afterthought since the students sometimes revealed things about a university that maybe we haven’t heard before. But it never was used to make or break a school. Plus who cares. Rankings are for bragging rights so one can say “see my schools ranked top 300”… Lol… It’s just one piece to learn more about a school but this would have very low weight.

17

Niche was by far the site used most by my kids. That’s what it’s useful for: student opinions about the schools.

The rankings, eh.

1 Like
18

I think CS has been coopted as a liberal arts major over the years; it can be considered a branch of applied mathematics. And, while Mudd’s engineering program is ABET approved, it would still be in the “general engineering” category; Mudd offers a few electives in what would be separate engineering majors at a larger university.

I’d save my skepticism for the hundreds of LACs where the majority of students are business and accounting majors.

1 Like
19

I took a big picture view of Niche when we were focusing on particular schools recently. I noticed that a few schools had more five star reviews than any other category ( with 1,000+ reviews) and to me, this told me that the students, overall, were very happy at their schools. Other great schools had fewer 5 star reviews, and more 3 and 4 star ones, and I believe this meant that – again overall – the students were slightly less happy there.

20

Oh @circuitrider this ranking makes this Amherst mama happy!

1 Like