<p>Which national college ranking do you think is the best? Among them, we have:
[list=0]
[<em>]US News and World Report
[</em>]The London Times THES
[<em>]The Gourman Report
[</em>]National Research Council
[<em>]Shanghai Jiao Tong
[</em>]Princeton Review
[li]Campus Dirt[/li][/list]</p>
<p>The london times/ Shanghai are graduate/ university, not undergrad, based so thet aren't really comparable to the undergrad rankings.</p>
<p>They are all flawed, most of them severely so. Although it isn't a ranking, I think Fiske is pretty accurate.</p>
<p>US News Peer Asssessment gives you a general reputation score for a university. The difference of 4.4 and 4.6 is nothing, but the difference between a 4.6 and 4.0 is pretty large in my opinion.</p>
<p>Pretty soon, I will have to make my own "Rank the Ranking of Rankings" thread.</p>
<p>If you really stop and think about how complex the academic and college experience is you will realize that "ranking" colleges is a very difficult if not impossible task, especially among groups of high-end, middle level and lower level schools. USNews is perhaps one of the poorest systems because of the many arbitrary items and weighting that go into it. One of the best analyses of this ranking is provided by Brian Leiter who also offers a fairly rational approach to ranking that makes the most sense to me. But read his treatise and ranking and decide for yourself: </p>
<p>What about class size, graduating in 4 years. He has U of A down, great school but it takes 6 years to get the classes you need as an average to graduate, classes are huge, there is poor advising. His theory sounds good but is simplistic. I agree with his premise but there are other issues of importance.</p>
<p>Your concerns emphasize the difficulties with any ranking. Furthermore what is important to you or your child will not be so important to someone else. That's really one of the major problems with devising any ranking. Reiter's approach is simplistic for sure but I buy his argument about what are the major important factors for valueing or "ranking" a school. Others will not buy them. I respect that, but my main objection is to putting more value on USNews than it deserves because it really is a very arbitrary system with many non-rational factors. Any I think that Reiter's criticisms of USNews are valid.</p>
<p>College dad, I agree with the factors he listed as being extremely important and agree that US NEws is overused and that there is difficulty with any ranking. I still like US News as a starting place . It was a good reference for us going in knowing nothing. My S chose a school high on their list but my D picked the school best for her that was one of the lower ones ranking wise she got in to because she loved it and it will serve her well for what she is doing. As long as folks don't use it as a bible, it can be a good tool but I understand your point completely. At our HS everyone applies to the same 20 or so schools when there are many great ones out there that would serve there needs as well.Thanks for posting the article, very interesting!</p>
<p>I agree with Alexandre. "The Fiske Guide To Colleges" by Edward B. Fiske is a good rating guide. In this rating guide, the highest a school can get academically is 5 stars, and I agree with the schools he gives 5 star ratings.</p>
<p>Mini's list - but he hasn't posted it. ;)</p>
<p>wow 2,000 posts?</p>
<p>like 20 schools get 5 stars in Fiskes, right?</p>
<p>I like US News the best, because thats the only one I've read/seen, and the rest are for like phD's and stuff</p>
<p>Does anyone pay attention to this ranking?</p>
<p>Nope. probably not</p>
<p>"If you really stop and think about how complex the academic and college experience is you will realize that "ranking" colleges is a very difficult if not impossible task, especially among groups of high-end, middle level and lower level schools. USNews is perhaps one of the poorest systems because of the many arbitrary items and weighting that go into it. One of the best analyses of this ranking is provided by Brian Leiter who also offers a fairly rational approach to ranking that makes the most sense to me. But read his treatise and ranking and decide for yourself: </p>
<p>his ranking is pretty poor, as well.........:(</p>
<p>Campus dirt is the absolute worst ranking site ever!</p>
<p>US News is mediocre. . .but don't make your decision based on US News.</p>
<p>Princeton review is ok because they only rank in category and don't try to compare overall colleges.</p>
<p>Alexandre, could you post a link to Fiske's college index.</p>
<p>US News is the most reliable for kids looking for undergrad schools...it doesn't take into account things like PhD's etc. and professor research and published papers - all things that doesn't matter to undergrads in my opinion</p>
<p>Uvajoe, I looked online to find a fiske college index. However, I couldn't find one. I mean, I did find <a href="http://www.fiskeguide.com%5B/url%5D">www.fiskeguide.com</a>, but it didn't mention specific schools. However, I have the book, and if there was something that you wanted to know about a certain school such as its rating, I could tell you.</p>