<p>Over the past 11 years the University of Richmond has been ranked Number 1 in the University Masters of USNEWS and World. Next year it will move over to the liberal arts category due to the nature of its environment.</p>
<p>What number would you put it at?</p>
<p>I'd say 10-15</p>
<p>My guess is 25 tops, probably 30-35.</p>
<p>id put it around 25</p>
<p>I think more like 30th. Maybe a little higher, not better than 20th though.</p>
<p>It will be between 25-35 along the same lines roughly with F&M, trinity, Bucknell etc...</p>
<p>Bucknell's a pretty good comparable, esp. with limited preprofessional programs and being larger than a typical LAC and smaller than a typical university.</p>
<p>I dont know statistically speaking its most comparable to Hamilton, maybe a stretch but Colgate as well (just being a university and all)</p>
<p>Richmond will be around 35, give or take 2 points. Of the four other schools mentioned so far (according to admit rates for this year), Trinity and F&M will be with Richmond. Hamilton will be ahead of these three but not Bucknell which exploded this year and will bump at least 2-3 points upward, possibly into the Top 20. Colgate also exploded, moreso than Bucknell, with an admit rate of 26% which will place it close to if not into the Top 10 LACs.</p>
<p>admit rates are only 10% of the overall 15% of the USNEWS section of student selectivity, so at most its only 1% of the entire rankings</p>
<p>Richmond's selectivity and the general bias against southern schools in the peer evaluation category (remember, Richmond will now be peer-rated by, and against, the selective liberal arts pool, not the regional unis) will keep it out of the 20s, and might push it toward 40.</p>
<p>Just a reminder that no matter what US News leads people to believe, selectivity is not the same as quality, and that academic quality differences among LACs ranked 20-40 are not great.</p>
<p>yeah i can see, the liberal arts schools are much more likely to have alumni doners than the big universities, so the quality of life is much better i assume</p>
<p>Gotta agree with Reidm on this one. The peer evaluation will keep Richmond down on the list -- it makes up 25% of the total ranking, BTW. What'll be interesting this year will be LACs that go down or don't move, allowing others to go up. BTW, the figures will be from last year's admits (Class of 2008) and not this year.</p>
<p>Among those either going down or remaining flat, IMHO, in peer assessment especially, will be: Davidson (due to negative publicity about its main benefactor getting off the board), Claremont/McKenna, Washington & Lee, Wesleyan, Carleton, Kenyon (student death because of fraternity drinking), Lafayette, Trinity, Holy Cross, Bowdoin, Vassar and Smith, among others.</p>
<p>Look to go up significantly: Pomona, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Colgate, Haverford, Wellesley, Bucknell, Colby, Dickinson, Hamilton, Oberlin, and Skidmore, among others.</p>
<p>I'm rather curious how Swarthmore, Wellesley, and Pomona could all go up while Amherst and Williams don't go down.</p>
<p>Yeah look for Richmond to be in the 30-40 range with Franklin & Marshall, Lafayette and a few more. Now that Richmond is being compared to the selective liberal arts schools it will face stiff competition.</p>
<p>It doesn't help that they increased tuition by 22% to now around 40K per year.</p>
<p>After, Amherst, Williams, Swarthmore-top 3-6 LAC's , there isn't a lot of difference between the rest-7-30 National LAC's due to lack of grad schools on campus more so a geographical bias. Colby, Holy Cross, and Bates are stronger in the East while Davidson and W&L are stronger in the South .</p>
<p>Anisky, there could be sharing of rankings or ties for certain places. E.g., Swat could tie with Amherst for 2, Pomona bump up to 3, Wellesley doesn't move. That kind of thing.</p>
<p>Collegeparent, the rankings don't work that way. If two schools tie for 2nd place, there's no 3rd place, it jumps right to 4th. So I suppose that Swat & Amherst could be 2nd, then Pomona & Wellesley would be 4th, which wouldn't be a change for Wellesley but one up for Pomona... but that's a pretty specific case, without significant change.</p>
<p>yeah college parent besides the major ones like davidson and kenyon, how do you know that all the others will go down and those other schools will dramatically go up?</p>
<p>I don't -- and no one knows anything for sure -- but we'll see in October. Those "guesstimates" are based on what's been happening to these various schools over the past 12-18-24 months, some of which have been dramatic such as receiving positive national attention in both national press and trade press (such as Chronicles of Higher Education) which increase their perception in the peer assessment rankings (which would reflect in an upward trend obviously). Others have remained steady at a status-quo level. And others have had significant negative publicity which I didn't go into specifically in all cases. As I said, they're fairly educated "guesstimates," but am confident about some of the prognostications.</p>
<p>In any event, the prediction about Richmond's ranking is fairly accurate, due to the fact that it's basically a regional school without a wide national reputation or alumni base. </p>
<p>All of this is of course, IMHO.</p>
<p>Unless US NEWS changes their criteria and formula, there won't be that much change in the LAC rankings. Some change, sure, but nothing dramatic. As as posted previously, even if some schools moved 10 slots one way or another, it wouldn't really say much about academic quality or the overall school experience. The schools discussed in this thread are all excellent. . .the rankings don't mean that much. </p>
<p>Peer rankings won't be significantly affected by things like student deaths (student was not drinking at a frat party btw) and the Davidson flap.</p>